The death of pc gaming

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<rant>

Is it just me, or is there just nothing good coming out on PC anymore? Everything released today is either an MMO, something that goes vaporware (starcraft II seems to be heading in that direction), unable to be run effectively on anything but the most expensive builds (Crysis or Supreme Commander) or just a port of a bloody console game. The games that do come out (like Sins of a Solar Empire) have shorter replay time than the games of old (although this could just be my own fault because I'm harder to entertain now than I was as a child)

In any case, I feel as if the only two decent purely PC games that came out since the beginning of 2007 were Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Empire (Crysis would probably be in there somewhere if my computer could run it) I end up playing a lot of RTS's nowadays because it is the one genre that hasn't been defiled by consoles yet (although the 360 port for Supreme Commander could change all that), and even the RTS genre is starting to dry up.

Is this merely a severe dry spell (<sarcasm> possibly associated with global warming or something </sarcasm>), or is this the drought that truly brings the end to the once great era of gaming for real machines?

</rant>

I agree entirely. It seems that consoles and MMOs are laying waste to the PC gaming market.

I agree that Sins of a Solar Empire is probably one of the best games this past year, it reminds me of Masters of Orion 2 in some ways.

But I think the primary problem is that ten years ago, you could put together a pretty good computer for fairly cheap and it would be able to do things no gaming console really could. Now, though, putting together a serious gaming computer costs a hell of a lot more than any console, and gives you basically the same gameplay.
Also, any PC gamer will tell you that no PC is immune to weird bugs and glitches - and even the best system will inexplicably not run certain games right and give you weird issues with others. Consoles have signifigantly less issues like this(despite the 360's red rings of death).

Companey of Heros: Opposing Fronts, Dawn of War: Soul Storm. Plus other games that are very hard to control on consoles.

Last edited by SDFarsight on 25 Apr 2008, 7:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

WOOT!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !

Sorry.

Can I be the one to take PC gaming out to the shed and shoot?

Sorry again.

Can you tell that PC gaming isn't my favourite?

Well PC gaming isn't going to 'die' anytime soon; unless almost everyone suddenly hates RTS, simulation and shooting games and goes for driving and fighting (melee) games instead.

I don't think PC gaming will ever die out, but it's become more of a niche.

Which is a pity, because for me the choice is between PC gaming and no gaming. I don't own a TV (I download TV series or buy the DVDs and watch them on my computer). And I need a PC anyway for all the stuff it does other than gaming. The price difference between a decent gaming-capable PC and a horrible cheap one that can't play games is still less than the price of a console (at least in my country), and a good PC runs apps faster too. Add to that the cost of an HDTV that I'd need to buy as well as the console, and the choice is a no-brainer.

Besides, all the console games that I want to play have been or will be released on the PC too (e.g. Mass Effect).

1. The consoles are still pretty new. Give it another year and they'll look very dated compared to even mid range PCs.
2. People keep saying that PC gaming is dying, because retail sales are dropping off. They ignore the fact that a lot more games are being sold through digital distribution, and those statistics aren't included. Valve won't release sales figures for Steam, but given the number of games myself and my gaming friends have bought there, I'd say it accounts for a huge amount of sales.

Yeah, I have pretty much the full selection of games through steam. if I can get a game digitial these days, that's the way I go. So much easier. Just download it to all my windows computers and I can play anywhere.

As for PC games it might become more of a choice of controls. I love a keyboard and mouse, so apart from an xbox modded to play old atari games I'll always use a PC. Not that I do much gaming these days.

As for cool games we have Europa Universalis coming out soon.

Plus games like Elder Scrolls will are better on PC. You get mods and it gets even better. Also current games like: Sins (alread mentioned) StarCraft2 is due soon The Sam & Max releases are a lot of fun too (if you want some casual gaming fun)

Plus the game I've been waiting for for night on 10 years... FALLOUT!! !!

*singing* Give me a kiss to build a dream on, and my imagination will thrive upon this kiss... sweetheart, I ask no more than this... a kiss to build a dream on***

Yeah, that's true... until they come out with another generation of consoles, though...


Personally I'm still afraid to send a card number to buy stuff online (identity theft and all that), and thus most of my purchases are in retail (although I do torrent some older stuff on occasion). Regardless, it's not just the dropoff in retail sales I'm seeing... it's the quality of games. It used to be that I could buy a new game every 2 months that was good... now if there's a good one twice a year, it's a gold mine...

The main issue is that developers are seeing consoles as an easier environment to code for. Largely, they're right, as it's easier to code for one machine (or maybe 2 if its on multiple consoles) that everyone has as opposed to trying to create code that's flexible enough for a wide range of systems with different hardware from different brands... Regardless, there were always a few companies that largely developed for PC, even to this day. It used to be Blizzard that was my favorite developer (Starcraft and warcraft series), and later Bethesda (elder scrolls series) took over after that. However, both developers are not as innovative as they once were. As of this point, I think that, after sins of a solar empire, Stardock games is the best developer for PC games as of today.

The thing is, someone every few years always says PC Gaming is on the way out, but are then proved wrong. "Starcraft 2" is coming out in a few years (and hopefully "Diablo 3" along with it) and there's still many MMORPGs that are still huge. It's not going anywhere.

As long as there are PC's, there will be a demand for PC games. And since PC's have more utility than consoles, there will always be a demand for PC's. Therefore: PC gaming will survive.

People say this every time next-generation consoles come...yet PC Gaming hasn't died yet, nor come close.

Despite the fact that console games are killing PC gaming, PC gaming is still alive and well. Seriously, PC games are the only gaming platform that can run over 60 frames per second.

Many console ports of PC games have a fix frame rate of 30 frames.

bioshock is love.

i have a really, really hard time playing console games.

I love how the consoles are called next-gen. They're so last-gen compared to PCs.

I don't know how anyone can consider consoles to be the better gaming system, when their controls are so bad they need auto aim on for you to be able to hit anything.

One of the biggest complaints about console to PC ports is that they are so dumbed down compared to made-for-PC games. That says really says a lot about consoles.

I like what this guy has to say, especially about how consoles are pushed through retail, and how if all the games are digitally distributed, then the retailers won't want to sell consoles they won't be selling games for.

I agree that PC gaming has declined dramatically in the last few years, I don't think it will die just yet, though. There's still some niches where the consoles can't compete. Strategy games for example. Civilization is probably going to be dumbed down to fit in a console. Total War series and all the Paradox games (Europa Universalis etc) could never be done as well on a console.

It's a lot easier for smaller companies to develop for PC, like Stardock as mentioned above. So I reckon to compete, the PC could go for the niche of inovative, perhaps more cerebral, indie games. PC does have huge graphics potential, but people get fed up of getting it to work.

The smaller save game space of consoles really irritates me as on the PC you get used to saving anywhere. I'm currently playing Zelda and Metroid on Wii and being driven mad by only being able to save at certain points. I love the Zelda game, but may well give up because I don't think it acceptable that you can only save at the start of each dungeon. Must have spent half of the game re-doing what I've already done.

So there's areas where the consoles are best yet still plenty of games that are better on PC.