Epic fails of PC gaming

[Woodsey]

So your epic fails of PC gaming are:

- One game that turned out shit
- One game that's taken forever but is being released anyway (on multiple platforms)
- Episodic gaming has been around for years, (Wikipedia says a text-based adventure called Kroz was the earliest example, in 1987), and you're talking about one specific developer
- DLC has proven hugely successful, and generally is getting better. It's also on all the platforms - I haven't seen a company charge for what is obviously a patch before either

You could have just written about DRM and had something that was an actual issue in PC gaming. Not individual cases or things that occur on the main 3 platforms anyway.

 

[Abedeus]

Console to PC ports are just terrible.

Remember the days when there were dedicated developers making deep, evolving video games for the PC, and not just money hungry companies pumping out 360 made games and porting them to six different platforms?

True, but lately the ports have been pretty damn good. Prototype, Last Remnant, Darksiders? Either higher resolution or better controls.

There are, unfortunately, complete failures... Hi, Star Wars: Force Unleashed. First one was a buggy craptastic drain of power, the second one probably also is. Why can't you be like your step-brother Assassin's Creed 2? ;/

 

[CrystalShadow]

The only REAL thing that annoys me about PC gaming is CRASHES, GODDAMN CRASHING, it is seriously the bane of my PC gaming compared to consoles.

And unfortunately the most difficult possible thing to avoid.

Games need fairly direct access to computer hardware to run quickly.
The more direct your hardware access, the more scope there is to monumentally screw up someone's computer.

That's true even for consoles, but consoles have ONE hardware configuration.
On a modern console you might have issues with different versions of the system software, but generally there's only one thing you have to test against.

On the PC, no two pieces of hardware work quite the same way. Things like Windows, DirectX, and so on hide the details from developers, but at the end of the day, you're still faced with every variation of hardware doing the same thing a tiny bit differently.

Now take this variation, and Multiply it by the fact that the 4 or 5 main components in a typical PC can be arranged from fairly arbitrary combinations of suitable parts, then add in the huge amount of changes and variations possible to the operating system components, AND the ability to run other software in the background that could do any number of unpredictable things (as a general rule, consoles don't do multitasking), and all of a sudden you find yourself instead of having 1 system configuration to test against. (or a few dozen, if you're unlucky), to having thousands of hardware configurations, with hundreds of thousands of software configurations...

PC games can have such nightmarishly annoying bugs as a game that works perfectly fine on 99 out of 100 computers, but will randomly crash without warning every 7th time someone tries to save the game on that 100th system.
And you can bet it'll be some weird thing specific to how that particular computer does things...
Those are the bugs that will drive a programmer insane...

And to be honest, in the end it's a miracle PC games work at all.

 

[GiantRaven]

The only REAL thing that annoys me about PC gaming is CRASHES, GODDAMN CRASHING, it is seriously the bane of my PC gaming compared to consoles.

fun fact, modern console games crash too.

Fun fact, so did older consoles.

Also I don't get what everyone has against DLC. It's a good method of getting more money to the publisher/developer especially in a market where used games sales are huge. And there is some pretty cool DLC out there (although there is a hell of a lot more rubbish but that is true with anything really).

 

[imperialreign]

Not all DLC is required to be paid for - some are released for free only to the PC community, whereas our xBox counterparts are required to "pay" for it.

It doesn't bother me one way or the other. Neither does DRM - although, the disk-checks can be aggrevating at times. In light of that, I have no problem using a fixed .exe when I actually own a legit copy of the game.

Crashing - meh. Today's PC games are much more stable than they were 10-15 years ago. At least now our biggest worry is simply a crash to desktop or simply the rig locking up. Not so back in the day, when a game could corrupt your OS installation, or your HDD, or you ran the risk of damaging your (at that time) extremelly expensive hardware (in comparison, today's hardware prices are much cheaper than a decade ago).

My biggest gripe - poor console ports. There are some excellent ports out there, but few and far between. Nothing is more irritating than to play a game where it feels like the PC version was simply an afterthought, and it usually boils down to the controls. On the other hand, I commend the developers that include additional content for PC versions, or tweak the core of the game to accomodate the PC - especially if it takes them up to a year to release the PC port.

Only real issue I have with PC gaming - stems from the console market. Publishers have become so adamant about getting a game out on time that the title usually isn't fully baked for release. There is NO reason why we should have to download a patch on the day of release, or less than a week after release. FEAR is a prime example of this - on the day of release, the game came with a card inside the box directing you to go to monolith's website to download the first patch . . . meaning, the publishers knew the game wasn't ready to be released, enough so they had time to print off the millions of cards to insert into each box. Give the devs that additional week or two to wrap things up, please!

 

[Continuity]

The only REAL thing that annoys me about PC gaming is CRASHES, GODDAMN CRASHING, it is seriously the bane of my PC gaming compared to consoles.

Uh, you realise that's most likely to be your computer rather than the games in general. My system is very stable for example and I play lots of different games, seriously I've bought about 80+ games on steam in the last 13 months and I play at least 25 hours a week with no real crashing issues to speak of. Ok i had a few crashes in the stalker games but they're somewhat famous for their glitchy engine.

Controls in Deadspace on PC do not allow you to use arrow keys for movement, also block various other keys in that area for no apparent reason.

Supreme Commander 2.

I think controls on console ported games are an issue fullstop, I could name at least 10 AAA major titles in the last few years that have had control issues on the PC.

OT: DLC is a pet hate of mine, almost as much so as DRM. I don't know how the publishers sleep at night.

 

[CleverNickname]

I don't know how the publishers sleep at night.

On pillows of money, covered in money, in a bed constructed out of money. And they have to get up 7 times a night to pee money.

 

[binvjoh]

DRM.

I agree with the first three, however on DLC, it really depends on what game we're talking about. For example, Valve is more of an epic win in that department.

 

[GiantRaven]

wow really? I've never seen a NES game crash. Then again with such old games you never knew if it was working properly or bugged to hell

My lack of knowledge around older consoles has betrayed me! I was referring more to the PS1 era of gaming having grown up with that rather than previous generations of gaming.