Concerned about the state of PC gaming

XtAsY

XtAsY

XtAsY

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Chelmsford, Essex
I've been thinking lately, it seems PC gaming is in a bad way. Releases seem to be slower than ever, fewer excellant games seem to be coming out and the excellant ones are usually on the conosles anyway. a lot of dosh is required to build a rig that can achiece the same visuals as the current gen consoles, the amount of techical problems seems to be fair greater and overall popularity just seems to be in decline. I've been a PC gamer all my life but I am just frustrated with the slow releases and waiting ages for excellant games. Dare I say I've even been tempted to get a 360.

What opinions do you guys have on this subject?
 
PC gaming is completely healthy, I don't know what you mean by releases being slower than ever, games are literally being released every week, i'm not sure how much faster you want than that?

Also you don't need to spend that much on a PC that will run current games to the standard of console graphics (which isn't very high) as well as having much cheaper and a wider range of games. Not to mention what else a PC can do outside of gaming.

All that has happened is a couple of developers have stated that they will no longer be making PC only releases, they will be moving to multiplatform. Which isn't really much to talk about as most developers just got on with being multiplatform rather than making public announcements in doing so and playing themselves the victim of PC piracy to cover their own poorly conceived and unimaginative approach to development that is stuck firmly in the era of their past success.
 
Next week? these threads appear every other day on these forums... you have idiots at websites like Shacknews forever dissecting developer interviews, taking precise quotes out of context and adding a troll worthy headline. Then you end up with people who didn't even begin question the level of nonsense presented to them going on to make threads or ridiculous posts in forums in every corner of the interwebs repeating the same garbage.
 
Spektor said:
Next week? these threads appear every other day on these forums... you have idiots at websites like Shacknews forever dissecting developer interviews, taking precise quotes out of context and adding a troll worthy headline. Then you end up with people who didn't even begin question the level of nonsense presented to them going on to make threads or ridiculous posts in forums in every corner of the interwebs repeating the same garbage.
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sheesh sorry, I am well aware of what's available on the internet regarding this subject. I just wanted to discuss it with some people and read others opinions.
 
I'm not worried about PC gaming, I'm worried about all gaming for sure, but not PC gaming. I have a 360, I play most of the bigger releases, most of them are utter tosh. Lots of the "big" releases on the PC have been utter tosh. GTA4 looks very dodgey on the 360, awfu hazy shadows, ridiculous out of focus stuff giving most of what you see no detail whatsoever, just a blur in the distance. Horrible framerate when going top speed, its crying out to be on the PC with massively increased draw distance, none of the "focus" crap and higher framerate, but even then it will have the same cliche'd story, with all the same cliche'd characters you find in 95% of games.

Games in general don't have to be original gameplay for me, but at least come up with a decent story. Being drawn in because the story is so good can turn an ugly came with only semi decent gameplay into a fantastic game. Where a game with the best looks and great gameplay just doens't suck you in with a average/cliche'd storyline.

Games really don't come out every week for the PC, thats complete nonsense. Every few weeks you get a nice batch of Barbie or other utter tosh kiddie games and point and click nonsense. THe AAA titles are few and far between, but same for the 360/PS3. Theres very few top games as every time they make a new game they add more complexity, more people to make the game and it takes longer to make.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Games really don't come out every week for the PC, thats complete nonsense. Every few weeks you get a nice batch of Barbie or other utter tosh kiddie games and point and click nonsense. THe AAA titles are few and far between, but same for the 360/PS3. Theres very few top games as every time they make a new game they add more complexity, more people to make the game and it takes longer to make.
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Games are games, just because they aren't the latest and greatest FPS / RTS title doesn't mean they aren't coming thick and fast, I think you will find its far from nonsense, they are coming out constantly. Also you shouldn't underestimate the selling power of those kiddy games, there's a reason why they keep making them, if you're going to talk about PC gaming you just can't ignore a vast portion of its market. If you want to talk about particular games or particular genres, then thats something else entirely.
 
PC gaming (and gaming in general) is in a bit of a depression at the moment in terms of new interesting games, nothing major has come out for a few months and doesnt look due in the next few months either (with a couple of exceptions like GTA4).

As an example I looked on the PC page of a well know online retailer, there are about 10 games featured on the front page as 'recently released' - these include things like DOW Soulstorm and Frontlines Fuel of War (which came out months ago) and a host of crap like Sims expansions, Euro 2008 and the various individual components of the orange box.

The demo disks on the front of mags also tells a story - this month PC Zone had demos of things like Terrorist Takedown and Lost Empire Immortals (I know, whoever has heard of those) and padded the rest out with some freeware games. There hasnt been any good demos released in ages.

But these things always happen, and its usually only a matter of time before things warm up again. I wouldnt get too depressed about it.
 
I know these threads are quite common but I must admit feeling a little concerned myself this days, especially after reading this,

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1654

I think piracy on the PC has got out of control, yes yes there will always be piracy, yes people pirate games on the consoles/handheld's as well, it's just that it seems to be effecting the PC very negatively as of late, it's common these days for the average PC gamer to come out with "Oh is that game really good, I might buy this one" or "oh I'll download it and see what it's like" without even thinking about what they are doing is not only illegal but damaging to the games industry, we all thought that piracy wouldn't effect PC gaming but it's looks like many publishers/developers are jumping ship and concentrating now more on consoles versions rather than PC, I really believe they should just pull PC games off the retail shelves and sell them through down-loadable services like steam, it's the only way to combat it.
 
lowrider007 said:
I really believe they should just pull PC games off the retail shelves and sell them through down-loadable services like steam, it's the only way to combat it.
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How would that combat anything? Every single Steam game to date was pirated. Granted, not as pre-release, but pirated regardless.

I think there is a very simple solution - make piracy less cost effective. Electronic distribution has no middle men and retailers to feed. Publishers should just try and put the game on steam for what they actually get out of every retail copy (rather than matching prices to high street shops) - just shift it at wholesale prices - £5 - £7, instead of £30 and let's see how many punters will bother waiting few days for iso on torrents...
 
tbh nothing has changed, all the good titles come out running up to chrismas. I dont even bother looking for new release at the moment. I still have loads of games I didnt get chance or the money to play from last year. Im unlikely to have finished them all by the time september comes around and a new set of games comes out.
 
The only way of seeing a pc games full sale potential is to release it at the same time as the console version & im shocked that some developers cant see this problem.
That will be partly down to sales of games that get released on other consoles after exclusive periods still sells well but that is only because its more common for a console owner to only own one console where there are more likely more PC gamers with consoles than then purely multi console owners & will play the consoles version before it hits the PC if there is any delay greater than about a week or 2 for the PC version.
 
The beauty of the PC is that the back catalogue is so large - you don't need AAA titles coming out every week. I'm currently playing my way through No One Lives Forever GOTY (2001), and over the previous 3 weeks I completed Star Trek Voyager Elite Force Double Pack (2000) and Rainbox Six Vegas (2006). I supplemented this with one modern title (R6V2).

Admittedly modern consoles are a bit better than they used to be in terms of supporting older games, but they can't compete with the PC.

Now, there are a few games which consoles get that I'd like to try, mostly racers like Gran Turismo series, Forza series, PGR series, and also the modern Streetfighter games. But that's nothing new, consoles have had exclusives for years.

Another factor to bear in mind is that many of the most enjoyable PC games are multiplayer games (online FPS, MMO etc). People are happy playing those for years, they don't need/want to be switching game every 5 mins.
 
Unlike say 4-5 years ago,I dont think its worth spending £1500+ on a kick ass PC for gaming anymore....but thats all thats changed really.

I mean, just went through OCUK and put together a PC for less than £500 which is easily more powerful than the 360 or PS3, but will never really show that on screen because the developers simply dont use Pc's as lead format anymore.

As soon as consoles were powerful enough for FPS and went online, the decline of Pc gaming was inevitable, but it wont die.

Me, i just cant stand the control method for games on consoles....for me all the GTA games have been completely unplayble with joypads...just too inacurate, for me the KB and mouse will always be king and it is why i will stick with Pc's for games, i just wont spend as much money doing it as i did in the past.
 
I agree with the OP, I've bought one pc game this year (Soulstorm) and the next one I get will probably be the Witcher directors cut thing. Before that I haven't really got anything since Bioshock/Crysis. Releases are definitely sparser. Theres a few games I've missed out on for lack of time reasons (need to get Sins for a Solar Empire or whatever that RTS is called)
 
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