Dissapointed with PC gaming.

[Darkfox]

Unfortunately... <_<

It's really hard to implement features like level builders/arena builders and the like in a console game. And you can't expand a console game, kinda frustrating because after a while... thats all your stuck with and it can eventually become repetitive. And that is sad. I like to take a turn in the development seat, what can I say?

Edit: Basically I like editing for multiplayer games. Like Unreal, I like to throw somthing new in that would be neat. Like using monster limbs as weapons XD.

It is really hard to get that same enjoyment from many games these days.

 

[ScottJC]

Actually, thats not true anymore - you can mod your next gen games because the Xbox360 downloads updates for your game, it has a hard drive and it connects to the PC - I assume its technically possible to use the pc to make maps and upload it to your xbox. I also assume with new power the consoles are going to have that editors will eventually come along.

With great xbox360 comes great enjoyment (in other words with great power yadda yadda) *I'm a microsoft fanboy until a better console comes around*

 

[euphoria]

Actually, thats not true anymore - you can mod your next gen games because the Xbox360 downloads updates for your game, it has a hard drive and it connects to the PC - I assume its technically possible to use the pc to make maps and upload it to your xbox. I also assume with new power the consoles are going to have that editors will eventually come along.

They should make an account for every registered user where you can upload your modifications with your PC and then download it to your console.

Btw. since i own no console, can someone tell me if its possible to connect a console to PC monitor (one of the reasons i haven't bought a console is the fact that my TV is a piece of shit). If so, is it done natively or with an adapter?

 

[ScottJC]

They should make an account for every registered user where you can upload your modifications with your PC and then download it to your console.

Btw. since i own no console, can someone tell me if its possible to connect a console to PC monitor (one of the reasons i haven't bought a console is the fact that my TV is a piece of shit). If so, is it done natively or with an adapter?

The 360 has a vga monitor cable you can buy for £19.99 at any store (convert to your currency, i'm lazy)

 

[euphoria]

from play.com:
Official XBox 360 VGA AV Cable - £17.99 Delivered
Joytech XBox 360 Digital VGA Cable - £11.99 Delivered
Not bad.

So, can you attach other consoles?

 

[WhiteX]

you´re off topic euphoria.

As for games modding, even the PSP and the DS are allowed to dload content.

EDIT: The whole point is...

Dear friends, Don´t update your computer to play games, don´t buy them with the purpose of gaming, don´t buy an Ageia Phisix, your GeForce 4 MX 400 is fine, 2 GB is way too much memory, GET A CONSOLE!

Consoles are cheaper, user friendly, less bugged, have more games and they have emulators too.

 

[arnalion]

The consoles can't stay at this low price forever. MS sell the 360 at loss, and the PS3 will probably be sold at loss too.
I'm preatty sure that the PC got more games than the console.

PS3, XBOX 360 and PC = 95% ports of each other.

 

[Miretank]

Dear friends, Don´t update your computer to play games, don´t buy them with the purpose of gaming, don´t buy an Ageia Phisix, your GeForce 4 MX 400 is fine, 2 GB is way too much memory, GET A CONSOLE!

C'mon, I'm hardly deciding between a DREAMCAST and GF5200.

 

[ector]

The main reason that PC gaming is in decline is that PCs are way too diverse, you have to code your game to work on everything from 1Ghz PIII with a Geforce 2 up to a dual core 64-bit 4800+ with 2 7800GTXs in SLI. It's way too much work to make full use of both these extremes, so games tend to either be way too demanding or they're not making use of a powerful computer at all.

The second reason is piracy. All the consoles have been cracked, granted (although the 360 crack isn't public yet and is piracy-only so modding the dvd drive will be 100% illegal) but piracy levels are still MUCH lower than on the PC.

 

[WhiteX]

The consoles can't stay at this low price forever. MS sell the 360 at loss, and the PS3 will probably be sold at loss too.

Even if they stop selling them at loss, what they won´t do because of competition, you dish your money out once as for PC you dish it out every year if you want to play new games.
There´s shader this, physics that more and more memory and processor required and the only thing sure is that the kid next door to you play all those games on his PS2 without paying a cent more for it.

I'm preatty sure that the PC got more games than the console.

But not the same genre diversity, what was the last fighting game you played on your PC? The last platform game?

PS3, XBOX 360 and PC = 95% ports of each other.

Consider the ports, dude, the ports from PC to console are very thought out and the strenghts and weaknesses of the platforms are very well considered, you can see that the Doom 3 port for Xbox got all the bells and whistles but smaller stages to fit the Xbox memory capacity (64 meg) but the PC version of Halo requests at least 128 meg of Ram and a 32 meg vid card.
Aside the various bugs and missing features we get to see on console games ported to PC...

There seems to be of no interest to anybody to program Windows to handle your gaming better, i understand the plethora of different hardware configurations out there but still a PS2 or an XBox game require more machine from us to be run at steady 60 FPS making one wonder, why bother if the console manages somehow to be faster?

With all that at the table, I went to Dell to see their price of a gaming PC, it will cost US$ 1750,00 for the cheaper one with a gig of ram and GeF 6800, the recommended to play Oblivion, note that for Halo 2 you will have to update your vid card, of course it will do way more than only gaming but...

An Xbox 360 costs US$ 399,00 at LikSang leaving us with US$ 1351 to spend with a PC so back to Dell, well, with US$ 1140, i managed to build a PC with
Pentium D 2.8, 1 gig of ram, GeF 6800.
Of course the more expensive model has way more hardware features but as a raw estimate you can see that it is cheaper, more reliable and just more fun to have your gaming on a console.

EDIT: @ector, dude, that´s not entirely true, i mean, with the increase on the minimum and the recommended system requirements and the "supported graphics adapters" thingies we get at each game they managed to narrow it down from the whole pool of PCs around to a neat comfort zone where not they but you get to adapt yourself to play the games.

 

[arnalion]

No i haven't seen any platform games on PC in a while .
Well a good thing with the PC is that it can be upgraded, and can be used for other things than gaming. PC is better for FPS games than console are.

I tested to build a medium gaming comp....

EPoX EP-9NPA7I, nForce4-4x, Socket-939 ATX, 4xS-ATA, LAN, Sound, PCI-Ex16

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8GHz Socket 939, 512KB, BOXED m/fläkt

TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB CL2.5 64M*8/16chip, 184-P(för DDR-PC400MHz)

Asus GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3, HDTV, PCI-Express, Tv-Out/2xDVI-I, 560/1400MHz

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 160GB SATA 8MB 7200RPM

Samsung DVD-brännare SH-W162C Svart OEM

Chieftec Dragon Medium Tower Svart w/USB/Firewire (utan nätagg)

Tagan Easycon 430W, Modular Cables, 120m fläkt, 4xSATA, ATX/EPS, SLI, 20/24pin

Hmm i don't think i forgot something. This costed around 1035 dollars, i think it's preatty cheap...

 

[WhiteX]

yes, but the price alone is not the issue, gaming is...

Even a good comp will not last the same lifespan of a console, it will be upgraded to be able to play the same games.

Black will not see a PC release, so will not Killzone and Halo took years to come to PC, Computers are better for FPS´s because of interface, Wii is about to change that, by the way, have you ever played Metroid Prime: Hunters?
Once you get used to it, the DS touchscreen is a second nature as an input device for FPS, for me, way better than the usual mouse+keyboard combo.

 

[Doomulation]

EDIT: @ector, dude, that´s not entirely true, i mean, with the increase on the minimum and the recommended system requirements and the "supported graphics adapters" thingies we get at each game they managed to narrow it down from the whole pool of PCs around to a neat comfort zone where not they but you get to adapt yourself to play the games.

No, WhiteX, that's true.
For example: nVidia and ATI cards do not support the same features, hence the code needs to be branched for the cards. You want good graphics? You need a good card. But good graphics isn't supported on older cards, because they lack features necessary.
Furthermore, all PCs are different: different amount of memory, different GFX Card, different processor... it makes so many variables. And that's why you see a "supported" list of all graphics cards, for example.

 

[WhiteX]

Sure, i understand but it does not make it for the amount of bugs, bad ports
and glitched games we see around.

As for what i stated, i meant it like this...
The PC "pool" got smaller with the latest technologies than it were before, most of the games are only playable for a small percentage of computers tailored for the purpose of gaming, once again oblivion, most of the hardware wandering around can´t play it and the hardware that can play it is too expensive to begin to compare it with a console.

More on this, Doom, we only got 2 main CPUs manufacturers and 2 main GPU ones, back in the day where there were others, gaming on PC was easier than now, i understand the difficulties behind coding a game for PC but the companies have more than enough resources to make it work.

For an independent game producer, OK, but for giants like EA, Capcom and so forth, this excuse wore off.

 

[Doomulation]

Sure, i understand but it does not make it for the amount of bugs, bad ports
and glitched games we see around.

I agree with you there. But with glitchy games, I think I can start to see why...

As for what i stated, i meant it like this...
The PC "pool" got smaller with the latest technologies than it were before, most of the games are only playable for a small percentage of computers tailored for the purpose of gaming, once again oblivion, most of the hardware wandering around can´t play it and the hardware that can play it is too expensive to begin to compare it with a console.

Not 100% true. Oblivion can run on old hardware too, if you cut down on a lot of things. The INI is there too, allowing you to further optimize it for low end systems. And besides, look at all the supported cards. If this is a high end game, then ask yourself how much work they had to put in to making it work with older cards which obviously wouldn't support features the game engine uses to achieve great graphical quality.

More on this, Doom, we only got 2 main CPUs manufacturers and 2 main GPU ones, back in the day where there were others, gaming on PC was easier than now, i understand the difficulties behind coding a game for PC but the companies have more than enough resources to make it work.

Oh we do, but there are for example multi-core processors and single core. And different types. Athlon 64, Athlon XP, Opteron, Athlon FX, Intel P3, Intel P4, Intel D, and so on. In fact, I have a game that actually lagged, or did not play well on my dual core. I had to restrict it to one processor.

For an independent game producer, OK, but for giants like EA, Capcom and so forth, this excuse wore off.

Furthermore... have you ever heard of a game that runs fine on one computer but not on another? Yes, that's quite true. Especially with applications. They tends to behave differently on different computers. So a long of time and money has to be spent on fixing such things, as well. The PC world is a complicated one.

 

[Darkfox]

Meh, they just ain't trying to take full advantage of capabilities and the versatility of a PC. But it doesn't matter much anymore as games, like cartoons, become more abstract and less thought through to meet a deadline. Much like American cartoons. The matter is, as the way things are going, would I want to buy a console, then find out that most the games on it really don't meet my fancy. Personally I rather wait and see what comes out, and if it convinces me that there is somthing good on these "next-gen consoles" as they are so titled. I'll buy them. But as I see it right now, it's more flash and less play, hardly worth porting to the PC anyways. May sound negative, but it is my opinion. And when I say abstract, it has no depth or is just a confusing hodgepodge of insanity ...

But yeah. I need to see somthing I like. Personally though, I'm waiting for the Shin Megami Tensei remake on PS3 to get it. I like me some demon summonin. X3

Edit: As I see it, some people can get too impressed by "great graphics", but what impresses me is some good gameplay and variability. Fun basically.

Edit 2: Touchscreens? Meh. We had that technology for years until they finally decided to apply that to gaming. Even then, it feels... a tad goofy using a technology for gaming which is used on PDAs and some cellphones. Almost like it's business or somthing.

Edit 3: I'm personally going to wait and see where things go. I'm not quite easily impressed. (But I am so waiting for Raidou to come out on PS2 =] )

 

[WhiteX]

a long of time and money has to be spent on fixing such things, as well. The PC world is a complicated one.

Once again someone made my point for me, it is easier and cheaper to let your gaming to the consoles.
EDIT: Doom, buddy, what i am trying to do here is to make clear to all of us that it is a waste of time and money to decide to be a PC gamer, it is better to be a console gamer and put up with pc complications once in a while.

Touchscreens? Meh. We had that technology for years until they finally decided to apply that to gaming. Even then, it feels... a tad goofy using a technology for gaming which is used on PDAs and some cellphones. Almost like it's business or somthing.

Play DS, talk later.

 

[Darkfox]

When it gets good titles. Maybe. I can't personally see myself becoming a DS kiddy though. Especially with what I want is on PS2. Which I own. I'm quite picky. Allows me to save up on money.

Edit: But my overall goals ARE to attain most consoles. Next gen... are... not on my highest agenda. I collect . BTW, my XBox was free . Lucky break there, thank you Taco Bell. But yeah. I have a fair collection to play with. I'm a bit of a classic person.

Edit 2: Truth be told, I will EVENTUALLY get one. But as things going right now in this area, it may take a while. It is pretty hiked up and I ain't dishing out a wad at this time. But as they say, what goes up, must come down and I'm a very very patient person.

 

[Doomulation]

Once again someone made my point for me, it is easier and cheaper to let your gaming to the consoles.
EDIT: Doom, buddy, what i am trying to do here is to make clear to all of us that it is a waste of time and money to decide to be a PC gamer, it is better to be a console gamer and put up with pc complications once in a while.

I agree with you WhiteX, I really do... all the goodies comes to the consoles.

 

[ScottJC]

The consoles can't stay at this low price forever.

The console itself is sold at a loss because they know if the price is too high nobody will buy it, hence consoles will always remain affordable. If XBox360 had a retail price of £600 only idiots would buy it or those with far too much money and Microsoft would essentially be commiting instant suicide on this project.

The console may be sold at a loss but a console is nothing without games, you pay a heavy amount for the games and where do you think some of that money goes to? You got it Microsoft. Sell at a loss now, recoup your losses later because with the console you are inevitably going to have to buy games to enjoy it.

Plus you're forgetting that if you build things in Mass you save bucks, what do you think Microsoft are doing? buying parts seperately... i'll take one cpu... one gpu? get a brain they buy hundreds of thousands of each and smash them all together in factories. Buying or building in mass is cheaper as Walmart or Asda have proven time and time again. Explains why dell can sell things so cheap as well.

Come to think of it I doubt MS are losing too much money selling the consoles.