PC Gaming Renaissance on the Horizon?

I don't think you read my post properly
 
CrispyXUK said:
I don't think you read my post properly

I did, but it ain't clear hence the edit :)

Meh, my points still stand towards console fanboys.....
 
Well I was basically (and sarcasticly) saying that most people will think that pc games are 'deeper' considering most people on here play racers on consoles.

And yes I do have all those games you mentioned and have been a PC gamer longer than a console gamer but IMO most console games, at least the ones I play tend to be 'deeper' than you average PC game
 
Tigerblade said:
So you call a racing game deep?

U huh.

Ok, so say we give you PGR3, name anothe 'deep' xbox game. Oh that's right its a 'console', by it's very own positive's a 'pick up and play' machine.

When you have WoW, BF2, ut2k4 etc hell even a decent version of CS then come back and talk about involving games.

EDIT - Not sure whether ur a console or a pc fanboy ;)

WoW is one of the most shallow and dull games i've played - entertaining for a week or three and then it was uninstalled - i've played the likes of Pro evo for 7 years and games like PGR keep me entertained for ages. BF2 is an awesome game and is much more involved than any Console FPS (but hey apparantly i'm biased so I wouldn't say that would I :rolleyes: ). Other console games like the Final Fantasy series and the Zelda series are extremely deep and involving as is Forza motor sport and Gran Turismo 4. There are plenty of deep involving games that offer stacks of gameplay on consoles if you are prepared to look. The view that all you get is shallow button bashers is some what outdated.

Just because I don't walk around with an "I only love PC games" badge on i'm apparantly biased :D . Maybe some of you should look a little closer to home to see true bias in action.

I agree that my reasons for not playing many PC games these days are mainly cost and time and although these are personal I think you'll find that it takes a rather dedicated gamer to keep up with PC Gaming and that the masses are much more attracted to the cheaper and more accessable world of console gaming.

My posts in this forum are as a gamer. I still play when I can on my PC (I have a great game of Hearts of Iron 2 going on as we speak) and this isn't some sad little club where you must pledge allegiance to PC gaming alone before you can post. Infact the less biased and more valid coments in a thread like this come from those who are not so blinkered in their choice of gaming platform.
 
CAS FAN said:
WoW is one of the most shallow and dull games i've played - entertaining for a week or three and then it was uninstalled

Thats not what millions of others are saying, people have died because this game is getting played so much!
 
Rashman said:
Thats not what millions of others are saying, people have died because this game is getting played so much!

It's perhaps good for the mass market but i've been there, addicted to DAoC, Anarchy Online and dabbled with the likes of Earth & Beyond (before it went rubbish) and EQ and whilst I played WoW solid for about 3-4 weeks I just lost interest around level 28. Started a couple of other Chars but only got them to 15 and 9 respectively. I found WoW no where near as deep as othe MMO's that i've played and although it was very easy to get into it just didn't hold my appeal.

I also find MMO's pretty life sapping though and hate the idea of having to play a game so much these days. If you couldn't get on for a day or so then the people you normally play with would be a much higher level and you'd have to mess around LFG again just to do some of the big instances.
 
I must confess that im still playing ut1999 and Motorhead, lol!
 
CAS FAN said:
It's perhaps good for the mass market but i've been there, addicted to DAoC, Anarchy Online and dabbled with the likes of Earth & Beyond (before it went rubbish) and EQ and whilst I played WoW solid for about 3-4 weeks I just lost interest around level 28. Started a couple of other Chars but only got them to 15 and 9 respectively. I found WoW no where near as deep as othe MMO's that i've played and although it was very easy to get into it just didn't hold my appeal.

I also find MMO's pretty life sapping though and hate the idea of having to play a game so much these days. If you couldn't get on for a day or so then the people you normally play with would be a much higher level and you'd have to mess around LFG again just to do some of the big instances.

Point taken.....
 
CAS FAN said:
Just because I don't walk around with an "I only love PC games" badge on i'm apparantly biased :D . Maybe some of you should look a little closer to home to see true bias in action.

I don't think anyone here does either....beleive it or not I own a PS2, cube and PSP, shocking u may think, but I still have yet to play a game that is more involving than some of the games I've mentioned.

Resident Evil, yeah, GTA series...perhaps, but these are games you play (in my case) for a short time only. Be it an involving story or not. There is a limit to the amount of dodgy frames you can put up with on PS2 SA or the monotonous plodding or RE on the cube, but you can get lost in CS or Onslaught on UT2k4 for hrs......

The bottom line is the PC rennaisance as you call it never was and never will be. There will always be a PC market as this determines the next generation of consoles, like it or not.
 
I agree that my reasons for not playing many PC games these days are mainly cost and time and although these are personal I think you'll find that it takes a rather dedicated gamer to keep up with PC Gaming
Not at all. I am far from a dedicated gamer - I spend more of the year away from home than at it but when I am about I either just want to partake in a large online community (TFC or Counterstrike and other custom mods) or just want to put in a single player game and play. I have never had any trouble doing the latter...all I do before I buy a new PC is ensure I get the best possible advice on graphics cards from this forum.
 
Although there are some involving games like Morrowind (sapped 3 whole weeks of my life) or final fantasy 9 (99 hours game time!) a lot of games are designed for immediate pick up and play. Even pc ports sometimes get dumbed down (BF2, Rainbow 6). There is no reason why consoles couldn't have as deeper games as the PC. Just that publishers are short sighted and think that all console players have no attention span (and think that all console players have no attention span :D ).

Playing Civ 4 recently there is no reason why this could not be on the console, even the PSP. I don't use the keyboard at all except to name my monarch. Everything else I do by mouse. It's a slick an interface as you'll ever see. Every game should look at their interface and UI. I could play this with Joypad with a decent on screen keybaord.
 
Rashman said:
A bit like me playing, half life 2/fear/serious sam 2/farcry/ black and white 2/dungeon seige 2 and trackmania/mame on my sofa with my cordless pad, cordless keyboard and mouse!

A bit off topic, but ive been searching all over for a wireless keyboard that can be used further away than 5cm!

Do u have one that works from 2 or 3 meters away?
If so what is it called and whats the maker?

Cheers!
 
AML said:
A bit off topic, but ive been searching all over for a wireless keyboard that can be used further away than 5cm!

Do u have one that works from 2 or 3 meters away?
If so what is it called and whats the maker?

Cheers!

Im using the logitech dinivo desktop (the bluetooth one) works 10 meters away easily, even through 3 walls (one brick and 2 partitions) you get a big but cool media remote aswell so u can change the music where your pc is anywhere in the house, which is good if you have your pc hooked up to more than one place in the house for sound and video. It will cost you though, think i paid £140 for it at least a year ago. Other than that i never really found one as effective, the cheaper one that does around 5 meters is the microsoft keyboard and mouse for bluetooht, cant remember the price but im sure u can look it up. Basically go for a bluetooth set. There is no lag in response.
 
AML said:
A bit off topic, but ive been searching all over for a wireless keyboard that can be used further away than 5cm!

Do u have one that works from 2 or 3 meters away?
If so what is it called and whats the maker?

Cheers!

Logitech MX3000 desktop here, works from about 15 meters away
 
One small ray of hope for PC gaming is Windows Vista. Not that the operating system in itself will be especially suitable for gaming, simply the fact that the hardware requirements will be so totally outrageous. :)

To run Windows Vista well (as opposed to merely adequately) you are going to need a minimum of a graphics card that fully supports DirectX 9.0c, with 256MB of onboard memory. Once people realise this (and I keep hoping there will some sort of MS certification scheme which lower-spec machines can't get) we will rapidly move to a point where all new PCs, even those primarily intended for non-gaming use, will have a specification as good as something that, at the present moment, is a high-end gaming rig. That should mean that, after another year or so, the games developers can start assuming that level of hardware will be present in any PC, and they can start coding games accordingly.

That will move us slightly closer to the console situation, where they can optimise for specific hardware and not waste time having to introduce lower detail levels for people with computers that are 4 years old (like mine :) ).
 
It should help to bring the price of GPUs down too.
 
The raising of hardware standards promoted by the arrival of Windows Vista will be significant - it will hopefully knock some of the woeful rubbish that is integrated chipsets into shape. However, as always, technology moves on and Vista standards will soon be average again. Ergo I think the PC gaming world - and indeed the wider PC community - would greatly benefit from some sort of ratings system.

A 'PC Forum' representing cross-industry (Microsoft, software producers, games makers, hardware producers, PC builders etc) should annually define two sets of specifications,

e.g. "2005: Recommended Gamer" and "2005: Power Gamer"

...such specifications could carry a nifty little logo that PC producers and games producers can put on their products. The terms would properly encompass video, sound, processor, memory, HDD, optical drive and performance requirements. This would bring three benefits:

1) PC makers would attempt to obtain at least one of that year's tags. This would raise the standard of the cheapest PCs resulting in an improvement in integrated GPUs.

2) It would make it crystal clear whether someone would/will be able to play a game on their PC. If they know it carries a specific tag they will buy games with that tag.

3) It would encourage PC gamer producers to make their games more scalable.

I have no doubt ideas like this have been mooted before, and that the general diversity in the PC industry (it's greatest strength IMHO) is the reason why it does not happen. But, dare I say, if Microsoft implemented such a system off it's own back I'm sure many others would follow.
 
I think that is a really good idea, then people would be able to see if they could play a game by simply looking at the packaging and what years specs they support. People with a bit more indepth knowlege will obviuosly be able to read the specs we have currently but there must be an awfal lot of people that get confused and haven't got a clue.
 
I agree with a lot of what is said above as at the current time there is such a wide range of PC Performace that it is very difficult to make a game to push the high end machines, whilst making it playable on lower end machines.

As stated above, maybe some sort of rating built into Vista would be a good idea so if your PC was rated say a 4 then you could play all games marked with a 4 or below. I guess as games would be published with a rating on them then future ratings would just have to go up and up so eventually you have a rating 129 or 521 or something.

You could then maybe have a more indepth analysis so that iff you double clicked your rating you could fiddle around with adding various components and it would show you what rating your machine would go up to if these were added.

I think a lot of people are put off PC gaming because they are either not sure what their PC is (perhaps if it's just an off the shelf PC world job and they are not that PC Savvy) and whether it meets the specs to play a game. Some people are oftem unsure if their machine can be upgraded and if so what it will cost. I guess if the upgrade tool showed the approx cost of the new components and the rating that you would obtain by adding them, then it would help out a lot of people who can't be bothered reading into how good the latest graphics cards & CPU's are.
 
By all accounts Most Wanted is very jerky on the 360.....couple that with all the overheating probs and I think I'll give it a miss for at least 6 months.

I think I'll stick to the Pc for gaming for the foreseeable future, or untill we see what the PS3 has to offer in real world performance. :thumbsup:
 
I still love my 360 despite all the problems people are having.

Its so much easyer to be able to plug in the 360 and sit back with my wireless controller on the couch playing on my 42" plasma.
No instalation, no patches, just gaming.


Another big reason is that many if not most 360 games, some of wich i really wanted to play, will never be available for the PC unless somone finds a way to emulate them and give them the propper AA and AF they deserve!
 
Another big reason is that many if not most 360 games, some of wich i really wanted to play, will never be available for the PC

Microsoft have developed the XNA gaming platform specifically to enable easy dual development for the PC and Xbox 360 - so odds are we will seen the vast majority of games on both systems.

More info:
http://www.microsoft.com/xna/
 
It all depends on the exclusivity factor, although a GTA style 6 month wait would probably be enough to make people buy a 360 if they really wanted the game.

Lets hope MS are true to their word about making/rekinderling windows as a gaming platform.
 
If you ask me, its not so much so that we can get the same game over two platforms, but more becuause PCs are used in game development and therefore if XNA works well on both Xbox and PC, its much easyer to port from the PC where most games are developed to a 360 dev box.

But yea, if we did see lots of 360 titles on the PC, it would certainly help bring PC gaming out of the doldrums.

This idea of using XNA in turn helps strengthen microsofts claims to make Vista more gamer friendly.
 

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