Batman is exactly why I don't PC game

[rasta111]

I think the premise is true as basically a PC game goes through a million different setups while the console is a unified design which a game can be more fully optimised for. Updates too are a mixed blessing, every fix breaks something else, it's a cold hard fact of development. If it didn't we wouldn't have endless updates and games patches.

Learn to live with it is the only message here. Waste your time on a console or a PC... Is there really a difference? Sure there's a million issues in between which we could all discuss all day long most likely ending up right back where we started which would be that basic premise.

As a PC gamer I find we have 'learn to live with it' stamped on our foreheads at birth and that's why we love PCs over consoles despite all this. We like being able to fix/mod things ourselves. I play consoles too but I find it's the opposite mentality at work there... Not to call anyone lazy or anything, personal preference and everything, in the end we all just want to play some games without really feeling like we're wasting time... Even though we're doing just that quite deliberately too.

Let me know when you figure out why we do that because I've got nothing. Feeling like we're wasting time isn't fun so we waste time for fun... Yeah nothing. You should feel worried when you catch me stumped like that incidentally. The dark gods are entering the playing field...

Tis never been a good sign. What is this escapism we value so highly? What are we running from? All good questions... It's all a matter of perspective. This on the other hand does not stump me because I can see it, it's just too bad the act of seeing leaves a mark on proceedings, invisible but not imperceptible. Some things can't be explained away... No for some things you need a really big stick.

Spoiler: The Stick

Unfortunately it's like fighting a ghost and just for fun you're blind. I'd stand a little further back. It's a big stick.

A visual reference so you know when to duck.

 

[asdfen]

If you are talking about Arkham Origins then it was unplayable on all devices at release. I was finally able to complete my copy on PS3 a year later after they patched most of game breaking bugs I was encountering.

Batman Arkham Assylum/City look absolutley amazing on PC compared to consoles do not have slowdowns and didnt have any bugs that I've encountered. PC versions of those games are vastly superior.

 

[Chaos Isaac]

Truth of the matter, this entire chat doesn't matter. Some people prefer console, some people prefer PC. Some people prefer gaming with a controller and no errors. (Last time I used a controller on my PC, it made my entire system crash. Odd enough, as i've consistently used that controller and set up repeatedly. It's also annoying to go back and forth from input devices.) Some people hate keyboard and mouse. (Like me, it hurts my wrist after a while. Controllers don't.)

At the end, it's a matter of convenience and preference.

 

[Silverbeard]

If I buy a game for a console, it's going to fucking work.

I can put a CD copy of Baldur's Gate 2 into my new PC and that shit is still going to fucking work. Can I slide a Fable disc into a Xbone? I can, but that shit won't fucking work. Consider that mate.

 

[Joccaren]

Console games run perfectly fine. There's barely any DLC even worth purchasing.

Darksouls Blighttown would love to talk to you about that 'run perfectly fine' bit... among other examples. Funnily enough, the PC version, for all its faults, didn't even cough there, let alone struggle.

The Skyrim issue is in all platforms. My friends played Skyrim on PS3 and only had quest problems I believe.

To take an argument from your own book, it had the most problems on the PS3, and at the time the forums were filled with PS3s whining about it not working. PC owners were laughing and saying "Lol RAM" and "Lol mods" at that point. Pretty crappy defence from you there. Oh, but I forgot, we need to hold console games to different standards or else your whole argument falls apart. Forgive me, I completely missed that part - anyone would have thought it to be obvious from all the shifting goal posts around here but apparently not me.

Last-gen consoles had issues because they had to use lead free solder for stupid reasons. Anyways, we're talking about software, not hardware. And last-gen was the only time my console ever broke from NES to PS4 now.

Funny, I thought we were talking about Consoles being more reliable than PCs. That was what your OP was about, so when did this debate shift? When that wasn't a defensible front?
As for consoles that have had problems... N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox 360 on my end. Mates N64 just died at one point, and mine needed the 'cartridge blow' to work after less than a year of ownership. PS1 had aforementioned overheating issue - funnily enough I wasn't talking about the PS3 or Xbox 360 with that one, I was talking first gen. PS2 had the exact same problem. Xbox 360, as said, Red Ring of Death. One of my friends had that happen but was lucky enough to have a father who works in console maintenance, who pulled it apart, shoved in new parts, and put it back together and got it working again.
So, lets not pretend that it was only last gen that has been any less than perfect for consoles. Every generation has had its problems.

It's not even about shit ports, it's about games not working satisfactory or working at all. Bayonetta on PS3 is a shit-port but it still works and is very playable.

And know what, Darksouls on the PC was a REALLY fucking shit port, but AFAIK it still worked and was playable, it just had really shitty resolution locks and controls.
Or how about Darksiders 2 on the PC. Worked perfectly fine for me, but was a really shit port. Hell, Mass Effect 2 IMO was a really shit port, with them turning everything into "E to use" and removing any hotkeys for individual weapons, or for your codex/journal/character tabs and such - consolified through and through. It ran like a dream though.
So... What's your point? Yes, this is about shit ports. By your own criteria [Which you have mentioned later to not include online problems] most first party PC games work fine out of the box day 1. Of course, this counts Sim City, Diablo III, and any number of other really shit launches that didn't work because of online issues. Oh, but that's fine, because we don't count those sorts of things by your own excuses.

A good percentage of PC gamers literally couldn't play Splinter Cell Blacklist. MKX seems to have had server issues (from quickly Googling) on consoles and the PC version had more issues like lots of gamers not being able to play it and low FPS. It's rather funny your game example only ended being another point in my favor.

Oh, MKX had server issues alround. However on the PS4 licenses were removed from the users versions causing an error CE-34878-0 which, from what everyone reports on that I've found, affected exclusively PS4 users. Warner Brothers claimed it was Sony, Sony claimed it was Warner Bros. Fun.
I would also hardly count framerate issues as terrible on the PC, considering most people complain when they drop below 60, which is still perfectly playable. On consoles framerate issues normally mean you're playing at 10-20 FPS, as the Console starts at 30, but that's a whole other issue.

Again, it simply comes down to this: Will I be able to play a console game? Yes. Will I be able to play a PC game? Probably, but maybe not.

Will you be able to play a console game? Yes - except for those times when there's bugs on both the PC and console versions... Then you can't. Or when the PS4 firmware update 2.0 hits and causes people's PS4s to be locked in some sort of standby loop. I guess you couldn't play then either. Or when your console doesn't have enough RAM for the latest Skyrim, and dies once your save file gets too big. Or when some license deletion bug hits.
I could go on.
Hmm. It almost seems like one could not be certain as to whether they could play a console game or not! What a novel concept.

 

[Maximum Bert]

A broken unoptimised game will run like crap no matter what it is on. Pcs have had crappy ports before and so have consoles devs should take the time to optimise and alleviate as many problems as possible at launch but they dont always do so. I dont know if its down to incompetence or they just dont care a lot of the time plus I would wager Publishers are just as much to blame by forcing a game out when it clearly is not ready.

All this Console gaming/PC gaming is better bs is just tiring tbh neither is exclusively better if you want the best gaming experience you will have to do what you always had to and that is invest in it all.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Most people DO care about graphics. Granted it's almost never one of the main selling points of a game, but if it looks like shit, you're not likely to buy it. If Star Citizen looked like a console game, it never would've gotten anywhere near the over 100 million dollar crowdfunding it did. Console gamers are still cranky over over not always hitting 1080p and 60fps. If it was all 720p, there'd be hell to pay, and you'd care about that too. If everything was shitty and blurry, you'd care about that too. These are just a few examples, I can continue if you want. Saying most people don't care about graphics is blatantly false.

Never buy pre-built. End of story. As far as I've heard, Microcentre is really good whenever they pop up in disucssion, and they're always recommended. Unfortunately for me, they're US based.

Wait, so how does PS+ make gaming cheaper if you don't need it for sales?

Mods DO improve the game. It's free content, made by the players. Whether it adds storylines, graphical improvements, characters, mechanics, items, etc, etc. They improve the game.
Actually, since you mentioned it, there are plenty of mods for Skyrim that add characters with well-written dialogue, good voice acting, and storylines. Same goes for questlines.

PS4 has fuck-all free games. PC has fuck-tons. Just take a look mate, seek and you shall find. That's the beauty of it. PC has infinite possibilities, console is stuck inside a box, and if you want out of it, you need to buy a PC.

Does it actually allow controller remapping? I haven't heard of it before. How does this work exactly?

In competitive multiplayer shooters, you will get stomped by KB/M used if you use a controller. Controller only really has an advantage in racing games.

Digital copies are unlikely to cheaper on consoles anytime soon. The manufacturers are good buddies with Gamestop, so they won't cut them out. Also, there's real competition. It's Sony's/Microsoft's way or the highway on their system. They can charge whatever they like, and there's nothing to really threaten them. It's basically communism.

And can I assume you agree with all the other points that I made off the top of my head?


Edit: we did kind of veer off-topic anyway didn't we? If we got back to Batman, well the original point still stands. This happens all the time, regardless of platform. Except now it's been taken off shelves until it's fixed. I don't think that's ever happened on console with a AAA game.

If people cared so much about graphics, the PC version of a game would sell way more than console versions. Even here (a community definitely skewed towards PC gaming compared to most forums), most people don't care if the game is 30fps or 60fps. Console gamers aren't cranky over resolution or fps, PC gamers bring that up more than anyone. Of course, if one console has better resolution or framerate, console gamers talk that shit up mainly for the purpose of demonstrating their console is better than the other. I wouldn't care if console games were 720p, I'd rather have PS4 games look as good as PS3 games but with stuff like better AI vs better graphics.

Like I said, I don't see how Microcenter can beat Newegg in price especially when I don't pay tax with Newegg. I really don't see how you can put together a decent gaming PC for much less than $500 outside of buying used/refurb PCs/parts on eBay. Hell, the company I work for literally sold a desktop on eBay for $25 (because they don't know how to sell shit on eBay), it only had an Athlon II but you could use it for parts in your own build.

You get free games (yeah, that aren't really free) every month with PS+ so there's a few free games every year on PS+ that I do want to play and I don't have to buy those games, that's how I played XCOM, it was free within a year. You do get better discounts as well. PS+ does allow me to sell games that are multiplayer or have DLC that I'd hang onto if it wasn't for PS+. I sold Bioshock Infinite and still played the DLC because the game is free for PS+ users. Sony takes your money and actually uses it for something for the gamers vs how MS just puts stuff you're already entitled to and lets you have it back if you pay them. Hell, the one console manufacturer, MS, that actually makes a browser is the only console last-gen that didn't have a browser merely to make you pay for free stuff like Facebook. Yeah, I know, the online thing is BS and PS3 didn't have it, at least PS+ is worth it vs Live not being worth it.

I'm not saying mods don't improve the game but they don't improve it that much (I'm sure there's exceptions). I can't really see how a mod of my favorite games like say Shadow of the Colossus, MGS, Bayonetta, etc. would make those games a decent amount better. Most of the Skyrim mods are all graphical stuff. I read that the Skyrim Interesting NPCs wasn't that good, well-written or that well voiced nor does it fix the bad writing/questing of the main quests of Skyrim. Good writing is very hard to find in gaming and I very much doubt non-professionals doing stuff for free is going to be anything special either. Also, Skyrim was a massively popular game and most games don't get the mod attention of Skyrim like I only see 4 mods for Dishonored (and none of them I'd even care about). I very rarely hear about a mod for a game I've played where I was like "that's awesome, I wish I could install it."

You probably can't name a free-to-play game I would want to play. I heard good things about Warframe but Mass Effect 3's MP is way better. I chose the PS4 because it has the games I want to play regardless if they are free or not, there's nothing I'm anticipating more than The Last Guardian or Horizon right now. There's not that many PC exclusives that I do want to play as I'm not a fan of genres that are big on PC like RTSs, MMOs, etc. Any PC games I am interested in aren't F2P like Shadowrun and Divinity OS.

Controller remapping can be done in the PS4's OS in the accessibility options so a game doesn't need any remapping options to remap the controls. No more fucking pressing L3 to sprint in FPSs.

I know the mouse gives you better aim but I hate using the keyboard for gaming.

Because physical copies exist (and will for awhile as like you said, they aren't going to cut out retailers), it really isn't Sony/MS's way or the highway. I don't buy games off PSN unless it's a really good price.

Like I said, console games are way way more likely to work vs PC games. I know the vast majority of PC games work for a vast majority of users. But there's those times when even big releases (like Batman) can't be played by quite a lot of PC gamers whereas that very very rarely happens (there's always the exception or anomaly) on consoles.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Darksouls Blighttown would love to talk to you about that 'run perfectly fine' bit... among other examples. Funnily enough, the PC version, for all its faults, didn't even cough there, let alone struggle.

I played Dark Souls and the framerate chugged a bit in Blighttown but it was very playable, it's not like any basic enemies are actually difficult in the Souls' games to where a few less frames would make you die.

To take an argument from your own book, it had the most problems on the PS3, and at the time the forums were filled with PS3s whining about it not working. PC owners were laughing and saying "Lol RAM" and "Lol mods" at that point. Pretty crappy defence from you there. Oh, but I forgot, we need to hold console games to different standards or else your whole argument falls apart. Forgive me, I completely missed that part - anyone would have thought it to be obvious from all the shifting goal posts around here but apparently not me.

PS3 users could still play the game, Skyrim PS3 wasn't taken off store shelves either.

Funny, I thought we were talking about Consoles being more reliable than PCs. That was what your OP was about, so when did this debate shift? When that wasn't a defensible front?
As for consoles that have had problems... N64, PS1, PS2, Xbox 360 on my end. Mates N64 just died at one point, and mine needed the 'cartridge blow' to work after less than a year of ownership. PS1 had aforementioned overheating issue - funnily enough I wasn't talking about the PS3 or Xbox 360 with that one, I was talking first gen. PS2 had the exact same problem. Xbox 360, as said, Red Ring of Death. One of my friends had that happen but was lucky enough to have a father who works in console maintenance, who pulled it apart, shoved in new parts, and put it back together and got it working again.
So, lets not pretend that it was only last gen that has been any less than perfect for consoles. Every generation has had its problems.

All hardware has failure rates. None of my consoles ever broke besides my PS3. With PS2, all you had to do was clean the lens. I had a launch PS2 that still worked a year into PS360 gen. I'm talking about buying a game and it working. PCs have hardware issues too.

By your own criteria [Which you have mentioned later to not include online problems] most first party PC games work fine out of the box day 1. Of course, this counts Sim City, Diablo III, and any number of other really shit launches that didn't work because of online issues. Oh, but that's fine, because we don't count those sorts of things by your own excuses.

The online problems with Sim City and Diablo caused people to not be able to play the game that are basically offline games. Online lag even happened in Daiblo when playing by yourself. Were console gamers unable to play Dark Souls if the online was down? Having matchmaking/mic/etc. issues in MP is different because you can still play the campaign just fine. All online games have very similar issues at launch.

Oh, MKX had server issues alround. However on the PS4 licenses were removed from the users versions causing an error CE-34878-0 which, from what everyone reports on that I've found, affected exclusively PS4 users. Warner Brothers claimed it was Sony, Sony claimed it was Warner Bros. Fun.

That didn't stop people from playing MKX.

I could go on.

For every rare console instance you bring up, I can bring up at least 10 more PC instances. Are you seriously trying to argue that PC has less issues than consoles?

If a man is to count Console exclusives as a plus, then they must also count PC exclusives AND mods.
Anything else is hypocrisy.

As for War Thunder... it is better than 99% of online paid games. Eastern European games do that by default at this stage...

The rest we have argue before. You wont change though. As long as you are happy getting the inferior, mortal, bad for the industry, more expensive experience... well suit yourself.

Just had to explain those two

What are you even going on about? I didn't even say anything in regards to console exclusives being a plus in the post you quoted. Mods are so overrated, I just looked up Dishonored mods as the game is on my mind (with the sequel coming plus I just bought the DLC) and there's 4 Dishonored mods (3 for difficulty, 1 for dismemberment); none of them I'd even care about. I know there's some awesome mods out there but you act like every game has all these awesome mods when they don't. It's not that mods aren't a plus, it's that they are a very small plus as they usually don't fix the core issues I have with games.

War Thunder isn't my cup of tea as I didn't say it was bad, just that I don't want to play it.

 

[Vigormortis]

I'd make the "Is this thread from 2005?" joke, given the absurdity in the OP, but even that wouldn't be completely apt. Consoles have had issues with games not functioning properly going as far back as the Atari, so...

Nonsensical argument is nonsensical.

'Course, the crux of most of the OPs arguments thus far have been "I don't like this, therefore it's bad and no one else should like it either." so I'm not surprised.

 

[Strelok]

If people cared so much about graphics, the PC version of a game would sell way more than console versions.

http://www.dsogaming.com/news/report-a-vast-number-of-multi-platform-games-sell-better-on-the-pc-than-on-xbox-one/

Let's start with Alien: Isolation. Alien: Isolation sold 120K PC retail copies and 320K Xbox One retail copies. Moreover, according to Steamspy the game sold 427K copies on Steam (do note that this is not a Steamworks powered game, so we can add those numbers in order to find out the real PC sales). This means that Alien: Isolation sold 547K copies on the PC and 426K copies on Xbox One (320K retail + 106K digital).

Dying Light is another example in which the PC version outsells the Xbox One version. The game sold 640K units on Steam, whereas the Xbox One version hit 506K units (both retail and digital sales. Note that we?re not even adding any retail numbers to the PC version in this case).

Lords of the Fallen is yet another example of the PC topping Xbox One. The game sold 218K units on Steam and 146K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted for Xbox One).

Square Enix?s THIEF also sold amazingly well on the PC. THIEF managed to hit 1 million sold units on the PC. On the other hand, Square Enix sold 506K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted).

Tomb Raider also sold better on the PC. Nixxes did an amazing job with the port and while the game was released at a later date on Xbox One, its sales never came close to those of its PC version. Tomb Raider sold 3 million units on Steam and 440K units on Xbox One (both retail and digital sales counted).

Dark Souls II also sold better on the PC than on Xbox One, and the same can be said about Resident Evil: Revelations 2, Sleeping Dogs, Metro: Last Light, Diablo III and Sniper Elite 3.

This one surprised me.

What's also interesting is that GTA V - a game that was released almost half a year later on the PC ? has caught up with Xbox One's sales. According to Take-Two, over 75 percent of GTA V owners on the PC have purchased their copy digitally, meaning that the game has sold ? this far ? 3.33 million units on the PC. For comparison purposes, the game sold 3.6 million units on Xbox One.

Honestly I hope no one is taking this "PC tech" seriously? I wonder if he/she is telling the truth? If so do you have any influence over corporate IT direction? If you do after Heartbleed I bet the entirety of the company secrets and client info are spread across Russia and China, good job comrade. I will take a stab in the dark and guess "PC tech" is actually tier one phone support for an internet service provider.

 

[Charli]

I don't PC game to play Triple A titles though. So, to each their own.

 

[Magmarock]

I would say it's the reason you shouldn't buy the game at all. All versions of the game should be good. There is also such a thing as bad PC ports. One example in Unreal Tournament for the PS2

 

[munx13]

If I buy a game for a console, it's going to fucking work.

So hows Skyrim on Playstation? Or Arkham Origins on 360?

 

[Neonsilver]

I'm a PC tech, I build my own computers too. I even tweak Windows as well, disabling a bunch of services and programs, doing some registry edits, etc. I really use no other Microsoft software other than Windows itself like I don't use Windows Media Player, Firewall, Defender, even automatics updates are disabled. I don't even have an anti-virus install as there's no point because on the extreme rarity that I get one, restoring an image is faster than running the anti-virus. I game on a console primarily (I do play some PC games) not because it's pre-built but because it allows me to spend more time gaming instead of trying to fix shit.

Honestly, that doesn't sound like you know that well what you are doing. You deactivated auto update from windows, since you consider it less troublesome to restore an image instead of fixing pc issues, I assume you don't update manually either. Otherwise it would be a lot more troublesome using images since you would have to create one every once in a while.
Not having up to date software alone can cause a lot of problems with new software.
There is a huge number of possible hard and software combinations that for pc, too many for developers to test them all. I would assume that at least for things like drivers and OS they simply assume the user has a certain version or better.
In regards to playing with the registry and services, it's very easy to deactivate services that are required for other stuff without noticing it.
And please do yourself a favor and get a proper antivir software and update your software. Resetting with an image might be easier than fixing a computer, but if you actually know what you are doing and protect your pc properly, it will run smoothly for years without any need for fixes.


In my opinion the reason why PC ports are often broken is because the devs are working with a something like a self fulfilling prophecy. They assume that most buy console versions anyway, so they see it like they would waste money with a good pc port. The gamers don't want a shitty port so they buy a console version instead.
So by buying console versions instead of waiting for a fixed PC version you become part of the problem. Besides, thanks to the money milking dlc practices, you always waste money by buying something when it's freshly released, no matter the platform. It's best to wait until you get everything in one edition.

 

[elvor0]

If I buy a game for a console, it's going to fucking work. I don't have to search forums looking for a fix for an issue instead of actually playing the game. I put in the disc and in a couple minutes (at most), I'm playing the game. Time is very important to me as I try to spend as much time enjoying myself as I can as time is limited regardless if it's gaming or anything else I enjoy doing. I'm sure after the game is officially or unofficially patched to fix the issues, Batman would be a better experience on PC but by then, I will have already played and beat Batman. I realize that Batman is not the norm but several games (and big releases) do have such issues that cause many gamers to not be able to use a product they purchased. The pro to having set hardware is shit will work whereas having any hardware configuration imaginable means there's potential for a better experience, but that's not guaranteed either because shit may not work.

It's funny that you should bring up Batman of all games to explain why you don't PC game. What was the defining feature of Arkham Origins? The fact that it was a buggy, crashy glitchy mess that the developers straight out said they were never going to fix. Shit out of luck if you're playing that game on a console, because it's still a crashy, glitchy mess.

Skyrim on the PS3 took over a year to be fixed (and I believe FO 3/NV had issues too), AC Unity was....AC Unity. Halo Collection, The Crew etc

Also, not using Windows software on your PC, disabling start up programs, disabling updates and running no Anti Virus doesn't make you a PC techy. It makes you fulfill your own worries.

Frankly, by this page, you should have noticed that everyone is laughing at you, which I should hope makes you rethink your argument. Because noone here agrees with you.

PC gaming is great, especially for strategy games. I love it. Sadly you are right, it's not as accessible as consoles, and when a game doesn't support your PC, you're gonna have to find a way around it yourself.

What PC gamers can't realize is that PC gaming is expensive, WAY more expensive than console's, in most of the countries in the world. That's because hardware stores in say, small European countries, Middle East, South and South East Asia and elsewhere, usually find no real competition like the one found in the USA or bigger European countries, and start charging for more, sometimes, a lot more. That's why a unified price tag on a console makes its entry-barrier much easier.

It's a higher initial investment, but it pays for itself in no time. Beyond games just being flat out cheaper, you've got steam sales and humble bundles, GoG and Green Man gaming enabling you to float away on a cloud of cheap games.

 

[Kathinka]

It's a higher initial investment, but it pays for itself in no time. Beyond games just being flat out cheaper, you've got steam sales and humble bundles, GoG and Green Man gaming enabling you to float away on a cloud of cheap games.

And even that initial investment is not that high. Sure, you can go totally overboard and pay 5000 bucks for a rig in a case carved out of bones of endangered tigers, filled with four top tier graphic cards and an octa-core processor cooled by the hand collected tears of virgins.
But a only a little bit over 400 bucks is what you need to assemble a machine capable of outperforming current gen consoles.