Changing fortunes for PC gaming..??

[iv-tecman]

With the recent successes with Double fine and their new graphic adventure game where Tim Schafer has raised over 2millon dollars from the public using kickstarter and now Remedy doing something that’s normally associated with the PC gaming fraternity as bringing sloppy ports to the platform, and this is bring a console game to the PC and make it better and profitable does this mean a change in times and fortunes for PC gaming?

Have double fine stuck their fingers up at publishers and gone back to roots?

Have Remedy given Microsoft Game Studios something to think about?

We also had the recent success of independent source mod title ‘Dear Esther’ and I do now wonder what we have in store for the coming year for us dedicated PC gamers.

It can be said that Remedy only did what they promised to do some five years ago, and they felt obliged, if they got the go ahead, to ensure Alan Wake was nothing less then a well crafted PC game. Likewise for Double fine, they only turned to the public as their last AAA title was a console only game…

Maybe reading too much into some of this, however it does appear PC gaming is gathering some momentum in terms of success that isn’t anything other then the public getting something they want for their preferred platform.

So, it all looks to be going well. Can it now get even better?

 

[iv-tecman]

The thing is, PC does have exclusive titles… You most certainly won’t be playing on a console –

Amnesia dark descent
Dear Esther
Witcher 2 (although this is just about to appear on the 360)
Shogun or any of the total war series
Diablo
Star Wars the old Republic
Red Orchestra 2
Company of Hero’s
Starcraft 2
DOTA 2
C.A.R.S
iRacing

And you most certainly won’t be patching or modding on a console -

Skyrim
F1 2011
Shift 2
Half Life 2

And not one new cross platform game on PC will you be able to enable v sync, play at 1080 x 1920 or higher, apply your own levels of AA. FXAA or even MSAA so in terms of what a PC offers with exclusives and configurability – no the PC was never in trouble..

I think my point is that publishers and even game studios might start to see the PC is still a very viable platform if given the correct treatment or targeted correctly when you look at the recent successes.

As for gfx etc… I think its got to a stage now that its more important to actually get the games rather then them being showcases. Crysis was a spectacular looking game, however even today it can, and does take a good rig to make it sing is it was intended to look.

Crysis 2 came along, throttled back from Crysis level or requirements, thus ran on many systems and still offered a decent looking fps yet didn’t’ need thousands of pounds of high end kit. I know which game I’d rather buy if I didn’t’ want to upgrade my rigs. Yet it was regarded as a sloppy console port. I can honestly say, the need for consistent upgrading had to stop and it has, and its refreshing to know I can buy a game such as Mass Effect 3, and know that because I could run Mass Effect 2 at 1080 60fps, I’ll be looking at similar performance for Mass Effect 3. Result to the publisher, developer is more sales.

I do wonder how many didn’t buy Crysis at launch simply due to the crippling demands the game made on current spec hardware at the time.

PC gaming looks to be hitting a sweet spot, its got the Gfx without needing hugely OTT tech, it now has the games coming and its looking good..

 

[iv-tecman]

I think PC gaming is growing rapidly worldwide as a lot of big countries like Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Korea only like PC gaming. This is driving a lot of growth (not in UK though as PC gaming is apparently declining a little). I do not think next gen consoles will make much difference to PC gaming as they are unlikely to offer anything more than current PC's can manage anyway. Current gen consoles cannot even handle 720P without vsync disabled on a lot of games so next gen will likely offer 1080P with more detail & thats about it. There will probably be an 18 month period when next gen consoles are out where PC gaming may take a hit though unless the games are very easy to port over

The German PC gaming market is from what I’ve read quite big and a lot of PC games are sold there… I remember the German market for Amiga being quite strong back in the late 80’s, Russia has a lot of PC developers and we’ve seen some really good games recently from Russia.

I don’t think the next gen will have as much impact as believed. A PS3 can hardly handle 720p as rightfully stated. GT5 is meant to be 1080 60fps but it screen tears horrifically when you get more then two cars on the track, F1 2011 is sub 720p and has zero v sync, even the off track menus and celebrations screen tear, and the textures are woefully dire… F1 2011 on the PS3 is a disgraceful mess of a game, reason I ended up buying it again for PC, its night and day. Even my laptop handles F1 2011 at ultra DX11 1080p with v sync and D3D triple buffering enabled without too much trouble... Could say codemaster just don't know how to utlise a PS3 correctly. maybe.!!

Current consoles can turn up a decent surprise though, uncharted shows you want aging tech can do when done right.

Thing is about PC’s, you throw brute force power at games to get them into the higher res and more detailed textures with more AA applied.

Anyhow, digress. PC gaming as mentioned has hit a niece sweet spot. Its just good to see indie games performing well, such as Dear Esther or Amnesia and also cross platform games, I wonder what the sales figures for Batman Arkham City were, despite it having broken DX11?

 

[iv-tecman]

To be fair to me, I never actually created this thread as being narrow minded or looking to get into a discussion about pc gaming “dying” (not dieing) nor did I want to get into a discussion about piracy.

I merely wanted to highlight that PC gaming is certainly getting stronger at this moment in time and its good to see console ports that are well crafted appear and also hear about a true classic genre get some funding.

Its also nice to read about indie titles getting good sales, therefore my creation of this thread was neither narrow minded, wanting to highlight how “dire’ the PC gaming scene is (it isn’t BTW), or even touch on piracy. I’m neither jaded or pro about PC gaming, been PC gaming since 1991 and have enjoyed each and every year and seen its many ups and downs over the years…

 

[iv-tecman]

I never meant you in particular (even though I written it as such) but more of what the discussion in the thread went into. I went off on one on the pc dying theme , I'll stay away

That’s ok, the whole discussion seems to have somehow derailed into a classic debate about how piracy is the reasons for the woes of PC gamers, PC gaming isn’t what it used to be debates and all the other crud that somehow crops up despite me trying to start a nice positive discussion about a few titles released recently. A few titles that I feel has shown just how strong PC gaming is considering all the negativity and poor attention (unduly) PC gaming generally gets from most publishers.

All I know is that considering back in 1996 I’d have to upgrade to the tune of £400+ to get the latest games to run at even half decent performance to today 2012 where I can use a two + year old gaming laptop and still expect nearly most new releases to run at fantastic settings and look fabulous at great performance and have a good selection of games to keep me entertained is great I feel..

To be fair, I think the hardware requirements for PC games had to slow down, not everyone can afford to fork out for £300+ GPU’s.

As for digital distribution, great concept, which is now a way I obtain many new titles. It’s fabulous to be able to say pre order Mass Effect 3, and on day of release download and play. Just wish the prices of digital downloads were a little more competitive, but this is a whole other discussion.