PC Gamers can seperate the wheat from the chaff.

[Abedeus]

The above picture is what I see here in this thread. And it is crap.

The fact is, PC games are of lower quality than console games. I am not talking about game content, I am talking about how finished and polished the games are. If I get a console game I know it is going to work (actually, after Fable 2, make that "probably work"). If I get a PC game, I expect it to fail until patch 3 or 4. PC gaming is a mess. There are probably 30 or 40 times more PCs in the world than there are consoles, but PC games sell like crap when compared to their console counter-parts. This is because console games make for the most trouble free game experience. No installing, no poncing about with drivers or updates, no DRM, just pop it in and play.

What is a "hard-core" gamer anyway?

Because it's so hard to make another Final Fantasy, where you add 1-2 characters, change few sprites and textures and you give it a long name so people get confused after first 4 words and buy it anyway.

Or a shooter where you just slap an auto-aim and problems solved.

Less work on gameplay = more time on polishing. Do you even have strategy games on Xbox/PS3?

Also, like Chaos Marine said, I can run any game on my PC. If I can't because of XP being too new, I run DosBox/Virutal Box and install Dos.

Too big requirements? Well... the only game I couldn't run on full details in 1680x1050 was GTA IV because it's a shitty port and it deserves to die in Hell.

And if anything, I just have to replace CPU or GPU. On E-Bay it's dirt cheap. Or I can pay it in 12 months...

Let's also not forget - your game DvD dies? WELL BOO HOO. You have to buy a new one or hope they will replace it.

I just download it from Torrents and apply original CD-Key. While we are at game buying - the most expensive games on PC are usually 130 PLN, and that's overpriced Rockstar or EA crap. The cheapest PS3/Xbox 360 games (less than 1 year old) are for 220-250 PLN. That's almost twice as much.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

The above picture is what I see here in this thread. And it is crap.

The fact is, PC games are of lower quality than console games. I am not talking about game content, I am talking about how finished and polished the games are. If I get a console game I know it is going to work (actually, after Fable 2, make that "probably work"). If I get a PC game, I expect it to fail until patch 3 or 4. PC gaming is a mess. There are probably 30 or 40 times more PCs in the world than there are consoles, but PC games sell like crap when compared to their console counter-parts. This is because console games make for the most trouble free game experience. No installing, no poncing about with drivers or updates, no DRM, just pop it in and play.

What is a "hard-core" gamer anyway?

In regards to selling, do you mean comparing store bought PC games to ones bought online or digitally distributed games? I haven't bought games from a game store since... Crysis I think.

Additionally, you have it backwards, PC games tend to be higher grade than console games. Compare Halo to HL. You can't, HL is so many levels above Halo it's not even funny.

Though I will say you're right on one thing, the PC has a crap load more games than any console has combined. I can play games that are literally over a decade old. You're lucky if half your older games are supported by the backwards compatibility chips or emulators the 360 or PS3 use.

Which is another thing, there are old classics like Doom, Hexen, Chaos Gate and the original C&C. They're still great fun to play.

I never said that PC has more games. I said that PC had more units, there are vastly more PCs out there than consoles.

Why can't you compare Halo to Half-life? I don't remember Halo getting any patches, I remember Half-Life getting several. What about Black & White? Remember that unholy mess? Even looking at recent history, where consoles games are sliding into the black pit of shoddiness where PC games reside, console games are of higher quality [http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a208/Gorzakk/Rubbish/fo3qm9.jpg].

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Butters you're confusing a PC with a gaming PC.

Nope I am not. I simply don't see a distinction. If I was going to make a game for PC, I would make it so that it runs on most PCs out there. I wouldn't make it so that it only runs on the top 5% of PCs then sit about wondering why it tanked [http://www.pcworld.com/article/140623/pc_games_crysis_and_ut3_flop.html].

 

[Vlane]

Because it's so hard to make another Final Fantasy, where you add 1-2 characters, change few sprites and textures and you give it a long name so people get confused after first 4 words and buy it anyway.

This part of your post is so funny when you think of The Sims.

Or a shooter where you just slap an auto-aim and problems solved.

In the consoles FPS's I have you can turn that off or they don't even have auto-aim. I don't even use it because it is not really helpful.

Less work on gameplay = more time on polishing. Do you even have strategy games on Xbox/PS3?

Yes, why?

Let's also not forget - your game DvD dies? WELL BOO HOO. You have to buy a new one or hope they will replace it.

Let's not forget - Your PC has problems because you downloaded a game with a virus on it. BOO HOO. Or did your Steam account got hacked?

I have about 80 games for the PS2 and not one of the DVD's has even a scratch. I just take good care of them.

Seriously stop being such a god damn fanboy. You make PC gamers look like idiots.

And no I am a PC gamer also. Just thought I mention that before you write something stupid.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Butters you're confusing a PC with a gaming PC.

Nope I am not. I simply don't see a distinction. If I was going to make a game for PC, I would make it so that it runs on most PCs out there. I wouldn't make it so that it only runs on the top 5% of PCs then sit about wondering why it tanked [http://www.pcworld.com/article/140623/pc_games_crysis_and_ut3_flop.html].

There we go.

You. Not every computer is meant for gaming.
You're grabbing a personal truth and passing it as a universal one.

Edit: Quotes be crazy.

Oh a linky. I got one too!

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/page-99063_25_0.html

http://www.yougamers.com/news/16639_us_pc_game_sales_charts_-_december_22nd/

No, I am passing it as my opinion, which is what forums are for....

I was going to type up some rebuttals, but I understand it would be a total waste of time. You won't actually budge from the position that all is perfect with PC gaming and that consoles are the scourge of modern humanity.

I will say that your links are worthless. The first is a forum post, and those are daft things to rely on (I can "prove" that someone saw the Yeti or that 9/11 was a conspiracy right now). The second was the PC gaming charts, and if they sold a combined total of 50 games you could still make a chart with them. In fact, the second one supports my view. If a game that sold as poorly as Crysis is number 2 in the PC gaming charts it really doesn't look good for that platform.

Until PC gamers stop being fanboys and start punishing game developers for releasing games half-done and crippled with bugs the situation will keep growning worse.

I will offer you this link though as my final word on the matter:-

http://www.pcworld.com/article/153399/47_million_copies_of_fallout_3_shipped_to_stores.html

But at least 90 percent illustrious, with Chart-Track stating the game has already outsold Bethesda's Oblivion by 57%, pulling in sales of 55% on Xbox 360, 28% on PS3, and 17% on PC.

PC stuff gets more updates, but your are somehow implying that consoles are 'bug free'.

Not at all. And with the advent of console hard drives and internet as standard they are starting to become like PC games. Console games do come with bugs, some pretty serious (Fable 2 was a complete mess). But they are nowhere near PC games yet.

 

[Ace of Spades]

If my PC were reliable, then I would like it would like it more than my PS3.

 

[fix-the-spade]

The fact is, PC games are of lower quality than console games. I am not talking about game content, I am talking about how finished and polished the games are. If I get a console game I know it is going to work (actually, after Fable 2, make that "probably work"). If I get a PC game, I expect it to fail until patch 3 or 4.No installing, no poncing about with drivers or updates, no DRM, just pop it in and play.

I take it you haven't played Fallout 3, Trunderworld, Left 4 Dead, Team fortress 2, Need for Speed: Most wanted, Metal Gear solid 4 and so on and so forth.

I can see where you're coming from, but the days of sticking a disc in your console and expecting (read: Demanding) it to work perfectly first time, with no install or bugs, are well and truly over.
I'd like to say game ending bugs/crashes are still a pc thing, but Far Cry 2 convinced me otherwise.

The assertion that Pc game sell like crap is a fallacy. Example being Half Life 2, it's sold 6.9million untis at retail. Nobody outside Valve knows how many have been sold via digital distribution, except that it's 'more than' 6.9million.
Unless statistics start getting punlished on downloads as well as retail PC games will always 'sell like crap'.

 

[RyePunk]

Not at all. And with the advent of console hard drives and internet as standard they are starting to become like PC games. Console games do come with bugs, some pretty serious (Fable 2 was a complete mess). But they are nowhere near PC games yet.

You're right Gears 2 was a magnificent game that worked flawlessly. Meanwhile TF2 out of the box was unplayable. Dont even get me started on L4D. *kills sarcasm*
Are you shitting me? There are console games that come out unplayable, and there are PC games that come out that way. The difference is that good developers reduce that to the greatest extent possible.
When Starcraft 2 comes out it likely will be patched, but those a likely to be for Balance issues rather than for stability. And a balance patch is a far different beast from a patch that simply lets you play the game.
The entire problem with this entire thread is that it is founded on a hugely inaccurate generalization, there are numerous very good console games. And there are numerous very good PC games.
Leave it at that.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

The fact is, PC games are of lower quality than console games

Matter of perspective. Regular patching, balancing and optimisations help. Whilst some studios release early, we do still have some rather good developers who only release when they are good and ready.

The bloke in the original quote is merely stating, for a game to be popular on the PC it has to be exceptional. It might not be 100% complete at release (*glaring at EA here, especially*) but most games hit stability during their life. Getting this stability in consoles is much, much simpler, be it that the hardware differences are largely 'has got bigger hard drive'

This is the thing though. Regular patching, updates, etc can all bring a game up to an acceptable level of quality. The problem is that this doesn't fit the commercial cycle of gaming. The vast majority of units sold for a game will come in the first few weeks, sometimes even the first few days. After that sales slow and drop of dramatically. For Xbox360 - I bought GoW 2 on the Friday it was released, and enjoyed a weekend with my new purchase. For PC - I got X3: Terran Conflict in November, after giving it over a month for the developers to fix the inevitable problems. We are on patch 1.4 now and it still isn't up to an acceptable standard.

Nope I am not. I simply don't see a distinction.

My parents still run a P200 with 48mb RAM and 3gb Hard Drive. At what point exactly, do we go back to. PC's are an ever evolving platform, but there is a sub set of that which is gaming capable. You don't complain your car can't compete in Le-Mans, now do you?

To note, i am a long term dual platform player, i've owned every generation of console, and had a console long before i had a PC.

That is true. I am not saying it should run with every PC out there, but limiting yourself to the top 5% or so is commercial suicide. Most people who own PCs, even gaming PCs, don't hav 4GB of RAM with a quad core processor and a 9000 series graphics card. You guys who do are in a tiny minority. Yes, the games are scalable and you can turn all the graphics down. But then what is the point in doing that when you can just get a console and play it with great graphics on the comfort of your sofa on your 40'' widescreen telly.

 

[Fightgarr]

Have you ever looked at the PC section? There's shit everywhere. Though I will credit PC gamers as sometimes being more arrogant about their exclusives. Every gaming method, including PC and including P&P Games his its shitbin. Sometimes there's a lot of terrible stuff in there, sometimes its less noticeable 'neath the shining examples of great games. Either way, my point remains: who left funions on my tablet?

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Really, it's a matter of priority. PC Gamers generally speaking have to invest substantially more in their equipment to run the new games, and they must purchase additional equipment far more regularly. Such an investment when there are other, cheaper, easier options available that would grant a similar experience indicates to me that PC gamers place gaming relatively high on their list of daily activities. It follows then that such people are more likely to have a better idea of what they like and don't like, and will probably be more selective about games they purchase as a result.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The fact is, PC games are of lower quality than console games. I am not talking about game content, I am talking about how finished and polished the games are. If I get a console game I know it is going to work (actually, after Fable 2, make that "probably work"). If I get a PC game, I expect it to fail until patch 3 or 4. PC gaming is a mess. There are probably 30 or 40 times more PCs in the world than there are consoles, but PC games sell like crap when compared to their console counter-parts. This is because console games make for the most trouble free game experience. No installing, no poncing about with drivers or updates, no DRM, just pop it in and play.

What is a "hard-core" gamer anyway?

Issues that PC gamers face do not indicate that PC games are any less well made than a console game. A console game can be designed specifically for a particular hardware configuration (i.e. the platform it's going to be played on). PC Games on the other hand are designed without knowing exactly what the player is going to use. Are they using a single-core or multi-core processor? Intel or AMD? Nvidia or ATI? What OS are they using? Do they have the latest drivers for their equipment?

There are only so many scenarios a developer can envision and counter. When a console game has technical bugs it's nearly inexcusable. When a PC game as a technical bug it's an expected part of the process. Yes, they're annoying and I don't like dealing with them any more than the next guy, but there presence doesn't mean there is a lack of quality in the product.