News Blizzard: PC gaming is not dying

I'm curious as to why "low res" graphics are indicative of a decline in PC gaming. While I understand the visual appeal of hyper-realistic graphics, surely the hardcore gamer community is smart enough to appreciate good, quality game play over bloom and real-time water reflections.

Then again, I'm still a bit confused as to why gamers even care what platform they use. Current consoles are already glorified desktop computers, and I suspect the next generation will look and function even more like a PC. It's not hard to imagine plugging a mouse and keyboard into a PS4 or a Nintendo Whoopty-Doo. I think, from a gamer's perspective, there should be more emphasis on good gaming titles, full stop. Nevermind the distinction between consoles and PCs.

 

In the past I've been a console gamer, largely because 10 years ago all I had was a Dell with integrated graphics that refused to run anything particularly sparkley. Since then I've gone through 3 PS2s, a Wii, a DS, untill my 360 exploded in firey death. While I had my 360 I built my current PC to be a multipurpose gaming rig. I've had both 360 and PC copies of the Orange Box, Fallout 3, and Oblivion. Given the option, I would pick the PC every time for these games. On the PC the Orange Box, TF2 in particular, enjoys almost constant updates via Steam, and both my FO3 and Oblivion installs have been modded far beyond thier vanilla installs, my Oblivion folder is currently somewhere around 4Gb. This sort of modding simply isnt possible on consoles.

I have also played the PC and 360 versions of Mirrors Edge, and I would actually take the 360 version, simply to cut down on the farting around that comes with booting my PC, and while the PhysX enhancements look sparkley, to me they didnt actually add anything to the game.

Going on a tangent, I can still play my PS2 games on my PC, using a wired 360 controller and an emulator. As far as I'm concerned, the PC isn't going anywhere, and where there are PC's, there will be PC gaming.

I think cross platform games should be made for PC first, then scaled down for console hardware. It's got to be easier to cut features out than add features to something that didn't have them to begin with.

 

Shh, you're bringing up tough questions

Fallout: New Vegas is a title that also seems to walk the line. On one hand, it's the latest in the traditionally hardcore Fallout franchise. On the other hand, it's a AAA title that is becoming very popular with even the more casual gamers, PC and console alike. Its relatively low system requirements even allow for traditionally "casual" gamers to play the PC version.

Or MW2, or the Halo franchise. I've heard cases of people actually buying a 360 for the sole purpose of playing MW2, and never playing any other games. What does that make a person?

PC gamer or console gamer are easy to define, particularly if you don't consider them to be mutually exlcusive, but you bring up a very interesting point about how hard it is to define the raw term "gamer".

The reason for the console bashing, at least my reason, is exactly what you say. They're slowly becoming PCs. At first, when computers were not nearly as functional as they are today, consoles made sense. However, as both PCs and consoles have evolved we are now able to see that the console's evolutionary path is headed to where PCs already are. It makes little sense to walk the steps in between when we can jump straight to the end.

The only strong reasons I see for console development to continue are these:
-Proprietary peripherals allow for games to be more smoothly designed around their controls. A quick look at any third party USB controllers for PC quickly shows how problems could arise if standards were not set.
-Standalone hardware setups on the PC side are still slightly behind consoles. The increase in mITX hardware is helping, but it's still not quite there.
-PC operating systems are not currently designed with "plug and play" gaming in mind. Console operating systems are much better designed for running games off discs, or easily installing them off discs.

As you say, a gamer's priority should be the game, not the medium. Placing all games on one medium helps increase the focus on the game. It eliminates the frustrations that come with platform exclusives which hurt the gamer in the interest of making money for the console manufacturer. The PC, being something which most modern families already own and simply don't apply to gaming, becomes the logical choice for the single gaming platform.

 

PC gamers are used to PC games continually pushing the boundaries when it comes to graphical quality. Of course we want our games to look good, who doesn't? There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that instead of still moving forward, it seems we're moving backwards (or at least stagnating) due to something that isn't related to PC gaming at all...console hardware. That's not necessarily the fault of the consoles themselves, more the developers who aren't putting in the same time and effort to make PC games stand out from the consoles. You can't really blame them either to be honest, since games take so much longer to make and/or are made by a much larger group of people that making an AAA game these days is a huge investment, so it isn't worth it to them financially.

The vast majority of the big titles released in the last few years are released on all the major platforms (PS3, 360 and PC), which contrasts with say 10 years ago when a lot more games were either made for console or for PCs and could be optimised accordingly. When you're making a game for all plaforms you have to go by the lowest common denominator and, if you're particularly nice, scale the graphical quality up to PCs accordingly (it's pretty obvious when they haven't taken the time to do this - i.e. Fallout NV). It's this platform homogenisation which is particularly frustrating, because there is still a massive hardware gap between PCs and consoles just like there was 10 years ago...we just aren't seeing it reflected in the games we buy. To some people this isn't a problem since it means they won't have to upgrade their graphics card every 12 months, but if you feel that way you might as well buy a console anyway. It's not too much to expect some kind of development IMO, but it seems there's very little incentive for developers to spend time and money on it now when the current generation of consoles aren't up to it, and the result is that there is less and less incentive to choose the PC as your gaming platform of choice. How can PC gaming be expected to thrive or grow when most developers are effectively pushing people away from it?

It's not just about graphics either, you can tell when a developer has just been plain lazy and ported things straight over from the console code. Things like menus or in-game control systems which have been clearly developed for consoles have been barely - if at all - changed for the PC version.

Being a PC gamer these days is like being the forgotten child who has to just stand by and watch as their parents lavish the younger sibling with attention and expensive gifts. No wonder we have come to resent them...

 

I think they know, but I think the average person can't be bothered with a PC. They do require some amount of hassle compared to a console. They also require some knowledge how to run them and maintain them.

Well we all like nice graphics and as said above, PC gamers are used to games pushing the boundaries year after year. This has almost stopped though now. It was a reliable trend since PC's began, and now for the first time ever, it has reached some roadworks.

I think most PC gamers appreciate gameplay over graphics, and you can tell that by looking at the popularity of games like Portal, and New Vegas which use old-ish engines, and even moreso, games like Minecraft and WoW. But when new games that are reaching us are dumbed down for dumb gamers, simplified for console controls, and are not even good looking either.. then yeah, we are very bothered.

That is exactly what I predict, and hope, for the future. Consoles are always going to be cheaper than PC's, simply because they are mass produced. An Xbox is basically a PC packed in to a nice box, and uses all standardised components. I only haven't switched yet because it lacks a keyboard and mouse. It also lacks an OS flexible enough to allow me to work on it. Give me those three things, and pack it all in a console that I can no doubt buy for half the price of my current PC, and I will happily stop being a PC gamer and become a console gamer.

But for now, I can't switch. I can't play MMO's on consoles, I can't work on them, I can't store mass quantities of data internally, and I can't play games like RTS's and FPS's with a mouse which is pretty obviously superior to a gamepad for those kinds of things.

 

its not about the hardware its about the OS... duh!!!!

anything else its about the barrier to entry

phones cost $800 but 'free' with contract... consoles cost 200$ but games cost xxx

sh*t my insert button just fell off.... thank you cherry! (stuck it back on - cherry = easy)

has anyone moved out of the 70's?

 

Um, "Consoles" ARE "PCs". The only difference is the operating system.