Misconceptions about PC gaming.

[Ago Iterum]

I was incredibly lucky in getting a PC for £400 that was quad core, with 4gb ram. The only thing that let it down aws there was only a chipset family graphics card, which was easily beaten to death with a new £100 Nvidia. All together, £500 for a lower-high end PC. (without perhiperals or monitor)

 

[Ago Iterum]

I was incredibly lucky in getting a PC for £400 that was quad core, with 4gb ram. The only thing that let it down aws there was only a chipset family graphics card, which was easily beaten to death with a new £100 Nvidia. All together, £500 for a lower-high end PC. (without perhiperals or monitor)

4 gigs ram, quad core, 100$ graphic card is considered low end? I think not.

Oh and in terms of gaming your priorities on budget should be reflected as followed--

Graphic card > Processor > Ram.

Also I'd just like to show this gem I found while surfing those insipid waters called The Internet, http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2188337,00.asp.
Covers this thread and PC ignorance quite well.

£500 for a lower-high end PC.

For example, in the lower half of the high end bracket.

And to be honest, I couldn't pass up the chance to get a quad core with 4gb RAM for £400. If i'd gone for one with a pre-installed 1gb graphics card, for high end gaming, it would've boosted the price up to near the thousands. There were PC's in the store WORSE than the one I got, but more expensive.

But to be honest, I think it was a store mistake, because I was in there the other day, and the price was at £600. So I was incredibly lucky to be able to buy and fit a pro-gaming graphics card, and still have it £100 cheaper than the actual cost.

 

[Ace of Spades]

All very true, except I actually had to know stuff to use my gaming PC. Every time I installed a game, there would be some sort of problem that I had to diagnose and then fix, and it got very annoying.

 

[Goronian]

I've found just the words to describe my feelings on PC gaming and modding.

"You can, but why would you want to?"

I can, with the money I've spent on my 360 to buy (or upgrade a little in my case) a decent PC to run most modern games. But why would I want to, if the only games I care to play on my PC are MUMORPUGERS, designed to be played on shit-stains, that Chinese goldfarmers use in their crowded sweatshops and Heroes Of Might And Magic III (And Jon Van Canaghem is still the best game designer to ever live) released in 1999?

To be more professional (and for the sake of ranting, while being chronically bored)

1. A gaming PC doesn't cost the earth
But you HAVE to know, how to make a PC, where to get the parts etcetera. You can do this, but is this really worth all the hassle, just to play WoW and see two extra pixels in Generic Shooter 5?

2. A gaming PC isn't upgraded every year
It bloody is, if it breaks. Which PCs tend to do every other month. Most of the time, you can fix them yourself. Most of the time.

3. It doesn't take an IT genius to do
But it still takes time and money spent on research and (most of the times for a newbie) trial and error. Googling trough forums, riding trough town to get better deals and ordering from shady sites online is SO worth it, allright...

4. Software compatibility
Drivers, Direct X and particular games won't like your sound card/graphic card/case color. Need I say more?

5. Patches
You still have to download them and most PC-exlusives (like oh-so-precious RTSes) come half-finished anyway. I dare you play Gothic III unpatched. Better yet, I dare you to play Vampire The Masquarade without downloading 2 gigs of fan patches just to run the bloody thing properly.

6. Noise
One point I won't argue with, since it's actually true.

7. Crysis
And another one.

So there ya go.

 

[Spartan Bannana]

1. A gaming PC doesn't cost the earth
But you HAVE to know, how to make a PC, where to get the parts etcetera. You can do this, but is this really worth all the hassle, just to play WoW and see two extra pixels in Generic Shooter 5?

One of my friends actually likes building computers, plus, it's a great value, you can build your own Gaming PC that would normally cost 2400 dollars for about 1000 bucks

 

[Goronian]

1. A gaming PC doesn't cost the earth
But you HAVE to know, how to make a PC, where to get the parts etcetera. You can do this, but is this really worth all the hassle, just to play WoW and see two extra pixels in Generic Shooter 5?

One of my friends actually likes building computers, plus, it's a great value, you can build your own Gaming PC that would normally cost 2400 dollars for about 1000 bucks

But why would I want to? I can buy a moderate PC AND a gaming console for that kind of money and run all the games I have ever wanted to play.

 

[smithy1234]

Great points made!

 

[Goronian]

Great points made!

Yes, you've, uh... Contributed a lot to the thread.

By the way, another point I would like to may about PC gaming. The crap to good games ratio is ABYSMAL. Not only that, there are DRMs. Internet activation. And games that only obsessive-compulsive NERDS can handle, like Europa Universalis and Mount And Blade (and like HoMM3, I suppose, but then again...). And nobody tells you so at the counter.

 

[smithy1234]

Great points made!

Yes, you've, uh... Contributed a lot to the thread.

Yes well I try my best lol

 

[GothmogII]

Great points made!

Yes, you've, uh... Contributed a lot to the thread.

By the way, another point I would like to may about PC gaming. The crap to good games ratio is ABYSMAL. Not only that, there are DRMs. Internet activation. And games that only obsessive-compulsive NERDS can handle, like Europa Universalis and Mount And Blade (and like HoMM3, I suppose, but then again...). And nobody tells you so at the counter.

That -is- unfortunately becoming more prevalent these days, the DRM policies that is. However, I'd disagree about 'the crap to good games ratio', if only because the PC has such a large catalogue of games, and older games in specific that it really doesn't matter that modern ones aren't -all- up to scratch.

As an example: My younger brother wants to get a 'gaming pc' for christmas, so as he says he can play games like Crysis etc. And while I don't deny Crysis was a pretty okay game, it's certainly not one to put on a top ten list, imo of course. Nor one to judge a frankly massive amount of older and good games which he has yet to even try, but won't give them the time of day because 'they're old' and therefore suck. But no, I failed to convince him, the same person who for the past few years has been collecting old Nintendo hardware and games -_^ Something ironic about all that.

 

[crimsondynamics]

rant

Xbox RRoD?

troll

That's a 2/10 on the PC trolling scale. You can do better than that.

 

[Goronian]

Great points made!

Yes, you've, uh... Contributed a lot to the thread.

By the way, another point I would like to may about PC gaming. The crap to good games ratio is ABYSMAL. Not only that, there are DRMs. Internet activation. And games that only obsessive-compulsive NERDS can handle, like Europa Universalis and Mount And Blade (and like HoMM3, I suppose, but then again...). And nobody tells you so at the counter.

That -is- unfortunately becoming more prevalent these days, the DRM policies that is. However, I'd disagree about 'the crap to good games ratio', if only because the PC has such a large catalogue of games, and older games in specific that it really doesn't matter that modern ones aren't -all- up to scratch.

As an example: My younger brother wants to get a 'gaming pc' for christmas, so as he says he can play games like Crysis etc. And while I don't deny Crysis was a pretty okay game, it's certainly not one to put on a top ten list, imo of course. Nor one to judge a frankly massive amount of older and good games which he has yet to even try, but won't give them the time of day because 'they're old' and therefore suck. But no, I failed to convince him, the same person who for the past few years has been collecting old Nintendo hardware and games -_^ Something ironic about all that.

I don't consider old games bad. I don't consider them good outright, but I still religiously cling to quite a number of old PC-only games, like the entire Might And Magic series, AVP2 and NOLF2. But with that said there are STILL a ot of crap or mediocrity. In fact, can you name me FIVE good PC-only-games, released this year, that are NOT FPSes or RTSes, aside from, possibly, Sacred 2?

I'll say that outright, PC gaming USED to be good, back in the age of adventure games and NWC/Dark Isle school of RPGs. Nowdays it's Manly Birckchin's Brown Quasi-Realistic Shooter time! Or perhaps We Still Can't Catch Up To Starcraft But We Will Try Part 2: Expansion Pack 5! Or Nancy Drew And A Magic Glow-In-The-Dark Condom!

At least on consoles we see SOMETHING not-FPS related released.

 

[Goronian]

It bloody is, if it breaks. Which PCs tend to do every other month. Most of the time, you can fix them yourself. Most of the time.

Someone doesn't know very much about computers.

I bloody well don't and don't want to. I buy a PC to play games and surf the net, not to study it. If I wanted to, I'd install Mandriva and break my desk with a massive Nerdection. I know just enough to assemble it, but it's not my fault when something goes "urk" and mainboard decides, that it really wanted to be a frying pan, when it was younger.

rant

Xbox RRoD?

Uh... Which... Barely exists now?

And PS2 disk drive fault, huh? HUH?

troll

That's a 2/10 on the PC trolling scale. You can do better than that.

Yes, I'm sure your SDF standarts are higher than that. Which articles have you done there?

 

[searanox]

I bloody well don't and don't want to. I buy a PC to play games and surf the net, not to study it. If I wanted to, I'd install Mandriva and break my desk with a massive Nerdection. I know just enough to assemble it, but it's not my fault when something goes "urk" and mainboard decides, that it really wanted to be a frying pan, when it was younger.

It might not always be your fault when something doesn't work (although most software-related problems are generally caused by user error), but if you've got problems every month then you probably don't know as much as you think you do. Where applicable, stop pirating stuff, get yourself some anti-virus and anti-malware software, stop messing around with system files and drivers that you don't understand, and stop letting other people mess around with your computer if you can. If you are getting consistent hardware problems and failures, then your system probably isn't set up properly - you might have a poorly-configured BIOS, or a bad driver installation. Sometimes, though, hardware does fail, but in my experience PCs break at about the same rate as any product, less if you're smart and don't fuck around with anything.

If you "don't want to know" how to use and maintain a computer, then great, stop complaining and phone up Geek Squad or one of your tech-savvy friends. It's your money going down the drain.

 

[DYin01]

I got a damn good gaming rig for the same price I payed for a new 360. Putting together a PC is like putting together a puzzle. If you know where the piece goes, it's not that hard. You just have to be careful not to damage any of the chips.

 

[Goronian]

I bloody well don't and don't want to. I buy a PC to play games and surf the net, not to study it. If I wanted to, I'd install Mandriva and break my desk with a massive Nerdection. I know just enough to assemble it, but it's not my fault when something goes "urk" and mainboard decides, that it really wanted to be a frying pan, when it was younger.

It might not always be your fault when something doesn't work (although most software-related problems are generally caused by user error), but if you've got problems every month then you probably don't know as much as you think you do. Where applicable, stop pirating stuff, get yourself some anti-virus and anti-malware software, stop messing around with system files and drivers that you don't understand, and stop letting other people mess around with your computer if you can. If you are getting consistent hardware problems and failures, then your system probably isn't set up properly - you might have a poorly-configured BIOS, or a bad driver installation. Sometimes, though, hardware does fail, but in my experience PCs break at about the same rate as any product, less if you're smart and don't fuck around with anything.

So... If I said, for example "the Wii is so cheap, they now sell it at grocery stores by weight" you would take it to heart as well? And I said every OTHER months, that means, for example septembet-november-january and so forth. Just throwing it out there.

Okay, I'll be more serious this time. In my experience, and most of my friends, to boot (some of them religious PC-geeks and a few programmers as well) technicall and software faults can be encountered around once every three-four months. They CAN be fixed with easy stuff, like reformatting your hard drive, applying some thermopaste or replacing a part or two, but still, you need to spend a lot of time fixing that. I can reinstall Windows and apply all the drivers and setups needed in under one-and-a-half hour. But it's still one-and-a-half hour, I would rather spent doing something else. Not only that, I will need to spend TEN TO TWENTY HOURS of re-downloading WoW or EQII after it, while they eat my connection speed. Not only that, but when something goes to crap, how should I know WHAT have gone to crap? Maybe it's GPU. Maybe it's CPU. Maybe it's mainboard. Who knows? I don't have spare ones laying around to check, I have to chuck it to the maintenance center and wait there for them to finish, which could eat up AN ENTIRE DAY out of my time. While, you know, even if something happens to my 360, I just send it over to MS and continue on with doing whatever I please for two weeks, until it returns.

 

[Thoric485]

To play quality games, you don't really need a high-end PC. At least in the start.

A cutting edge PC in my eariler years would've taken my virgin gamer mind on the path of over-rated commercial crap. 366Mhz CPU, 32MB RAM, 1MB video, modem connection, abandonia and the-underdogs - best gaming time of my life. Maybe it's mainly nostalgia and that persistent "first game" feeling but i'll be damned if it didn't feel better than using my high-end machine to spend time on gaming forums bored out of my mind.

 

[Goronian]

To play quality games, you don't really need a high-end PC.

A cutting edge PC in my eariler years would've taken my virgin gamer mind on the path of over-rated commercial crap. 366Mhz CPU, 32MB RAM, 1MB video, modem connection, abandonia and the-underdogs - best gaming time of my life. Maybe it's mainly nostalgia and that persistent "first game" feeling but i'll be damned if it didn't feel better than using my high-end machine to spend my time on gaming forums bored out of my mind.

Well, most of the games of the past CAN'T hold a candle for the games of today, let's admit it. There are a few gems, mostly platformers, turn-basers, adventures and RPGs, if only because they don't make games in those genres anymore. And I hate them for it.