PC gamers....why must we always get shafted?

[chozo_hybrid]

Sorry can't tell you why pc games get nearly no good games anymore, gotta play the awesome pc exclusive Faster than light...

Thanks to your post, I just discovered an awesome game that I added to my Steam wishlist, it looks cool.

 

[GoaThief]

I remember the chore of updating drivers during the times of dial-up internet. At the same time, a PS2 was smaller, faster, more fun, with better graphics.

Mmmmm, no.

PC has always been better, compare these two games released within months of each other;

 

[Vault101]

Why does it have to be the same? Why can't it be a different experience than the one provided by the PC?

because that "different" experience is worse....to put it another (if more dramatic way) it feels like I'm being choked, restricted, hampered, held back, patronised

 

[Doclector]

Well, us console gamers get screwed in some ways as well. We don't have nearly as awesome an indie market as PC players get, due to restrictions on how console games are made and released. Stuff like xbl indie games helps, but we'll never really have the free market that PC has.

We also miss out on mods, for the exact same reason.

Personally, as a horror fan, not being able to afford a gaming rig on which to play the genuine horror games that PC seems to get showered in is horrible. I'm starved of horror, and almost every promising title on the horizon disappoints me, either by being essentially an action game with added gore, or simply being crap. Amy, Deadlight, Dead Space 3, the list goes on, and the disappointment is crushing.

However, the same free market that allows PC access to up and coming indie games, and that allows people to take more risks on horror, allows some horrible business practices, mostly stated in the OP. DRM, limited installs, all of this feels like it should, by all consumer rights, be illegal, but as of yet, it isn't. The state of PC gaming is one of the many reasons that we need governments to look into more consumer rights to account for the wildly different situations presented by modern gaming.

 

[Erttheking]

Dying?...when the Hell did that happen? Last time I checked, some of the more elitist PC gamers were shoving it down my throat that 90% of all exclusive games were for the PC, and that the consoles didn't nearly have enough to compare, and the Dark Souls port may not be that good, but I hear it's easily fixable, and hey, console gamers get shit ports sometimes too. Do you know anyone who plays the Xbox version of TF2? Nope. And thought that everyone loved steam with it constantly throwing great deals at you. No offense Vault, but you've got it pretty good.

 

[Entitled]

PC gaming is simply less mainstream than consoles, so if you are getting your perspective of "real" gaming culture from the biggest gaming news sites an forums, you get the feeling that PC gamers are at a disadvantage at that. Most big-name francises are TPS style games, and RPG and FPS games are starting to imitate those too, being more console-centric. Cinematic AAA gaming in general is console centric, and they suck on PCs accordingly.

On the other hand, PC gaming has more of those genres that Yahtzee called "dad games" in his previous episode about DayZ. Less blockbuster shoot-y action with shiny cutscenes, and more think-y tinkering simulation of whatever any given niche cares about (city building, medieval politics, spacecraft-building, business management, etc). Even the narrative PC games are more commonly things like point-and-click adventures, wit their puzzles, or hardcore subgenres of RPGs, with more time spent in menus than with killing things.

So you, Average Gamer, look through one of those " reasons why it's worth to be a PC gamer [http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/2012-2/]" lists, and you only see obscure exclusives that are "unimportant", while all the "important" titles, your GoW, AssCreed, CoD, GTA, Mass Effect, Crysis, all being either console exclusives or treating console as their primary system, while for most PC gamers, the PC exclusives are simply more interesting.

Even looking at their metacritic score, PC exclusive games are often downrated by reviewers for being "too complicated" or "not user friendly enough", while their intended niche audience is perfectly happy with them, while hyped AAA games are getting high rates just for the sake of pleasing the expectations that "it must be famous for a reason"

 

[Growley]

Amount of RAM and type of HDD matter a lot. More, better RAM and a SSD will load environments faster, hold more in short term memory to decrease pop-in and handle more entities at any given time. If you're building a game for a console, you know exactly what hardware you have to work with. If you're building a game for a PC, you can't be sure how many entities you can have rendered, how large world spaces can be to keep load times short, or how much you can have calculating in a single moment. You need to make your game run on a low setting and a high setting. On a console, you need one game.

Lol amount of RAM and your HDD probably matter the least when it comes to gaming. Sure, an SSD will load environments faster, but otherwise makes no difference, and system RAM doesn't do much at all once you have over 4GB. You're talking out of your ass.

 

[Vault101]

You know what, screw this post. I spent 5 minutes ages coming up with it and somehow destroyed trying to make it smaller. Vault, just imagine a really well thought out post perfectly countering everything you said.

its ok I have a copy

[quote/]First of all I am not going to pay extra money to get my controller (Xbox if it makes any difference)[/quote]
the PS3 thing was easy and free.....as for xbox controllers I'm not sure there,

[quote/]to play on a worse screen,[/quote]
worse?.....that depends entirly on what your monitor is like (compared to your TV) thankfully I have a good TV but even then I'd take a monitor over that any day (of coarse if you've got HDMI support on eather end hooking your PC up to the TV is repetitively straight forward...I mean if you [i/]really[/i] wanted too...though in this case its clear you would prefer a console at that point)


[quote/]Also mouse and keyboard kills FPS for me. I can't get immersed if I am typing on a keyboard. Probably just me.[/quote]

typing?.....you know there is a difference pressing buttons and typing right? you not [i/]typing[i/] anything, WASD are directional buttons like a traditional D pad...it doesn't matter if they are part of a keyboard...as for aiming with a mouse...yeah there is no comparison....your just used to to a gamepad obviously

[quote/]I'll grant that the community thing could have been phrased better. For now lets just say that my experience on Xbox has been a ton better than PC.[/quote]

fair enough...but still thats only your experience....there are dick heads whatever platform you go

[quote/]*****. Yes I do actually love that word. Now I think about it I realize just how good it is actually. I can't think of many words that describe quite so clearly what you are getting across.[/quote]
so I'm bitching now?.....anyway I'm just saying its an annoying phrase that I feel is overused and all to often has a handwave,

in that case..it depends..I'm not exactly tech savvy enough to know how much of thease are issues, but something simple as FOV (feild of veiw) can actually be a real issue for some, to be fair though I'd be a little more graful for getting a port at all

 

[Athinira]

Seems to me like you're just focusing on the negative sides.

I don't really buy the "Download Size" argument. 15 GB may sound like a lot, but you still have the option to buy retail (and no, i don't find the retail part of PC gaming depressive. Why is it any more depressive than console gaming?).

DRM is an issue, but I'm one of those people who doesn't have issues with cracking DRM (from my legally purchased games), and who can accept some DRM just fine (Steams DRM with offline mode for example).

If there is one thing i do hate, however, it's bad console ports. Those are the worst. I don't mind GOOD console ports (they do exist), but bad console ports leave me with a bad taste in my mouth. A recent example is Ghost Recon Future Soldier. Gameplay is fine, but the game is absolutely HORRIBLY optimized for PC, running like jam on a semi-old graphic card that by all means SHOULD be able to run it had it been in the hands of competent engine developers.

That's why i hate developers who insist on developing their own proprietary engines when they can't figure out how to fucking do it properly. The games that run the best on PC are ironically enough the games that license engines like Unreal Engine 3 or CryEngine 3. The only recent company that has impressed me with the performance of their own engine is Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare. Say what you like about the Modern Warfare series, but the engine runs smooth, even on consoles (60 FPS on consoles vs. 30 for Battlefield 3) and even when the screen is littered with action and it looks good.

 

[Vault101]

So you, Average Gamer, look through one of those " reasons why it's worth to be a PC gamer [http://adrianwerner.wordpress.com/2012-2/]" lists, and you only see obscure exclusives that are "unimportant", while all the "important" titles, your GoW, AssCreed, CoD, GTA, Mass Effect, Crysis, all being either console exclusives or treating console as their primary system, while for most PC gamers, the PC exclusives are simply more interesting.

I'd hardly call Mass Effect a console exclusive, mabye it was primarily for the Xbox but there are big differences between the console and PC version...mainly in the interface..because Bioware at least made half an effort with the PC version being a PC developer originally

anyway even if that is the came (games deveoped with consoles in mind first and foremost) if they arent god awful ports then they are still better to play on PC if thats your preference, just look at skyrim

 

[Vault101]

I don't really buy the "Download Size" argument. 15 GB may sound like a lot, but you still have the option to buy retail (and no, i don't find the retail part of PC gaming depressive. Why is it any more depressive than console gaming?).
.

to be honest I'm not actually this upset..

anywhere"data caps"...they are a thing

and by depressing I meant the sections are smaller and don't have as many..but to be fair here (In Aus) the stores still stock an ok section

 

[Growley]

Amount of RAM and type of HDD matter a lot. More, better RAM and a SSD will load environments faster, hold more in short term memory to decrease pop-in and handle more entities at any given time. If you're building a game for a console, you know exactly what hardware you have to work with. If you're building a game for a PC, you can't be sure how many entities you can have rendered, how large world spaces can be to keep load times short, or how much you can have calculating in a single moment. You need to make your game run on a low setting and a high setting. On a console, you need one game.

Lol amount of RAM and your HDD probably matter the least when it comes to gaming. Sure, an SSD will load environments faster, but otherwise makes no difference, and system RAM doesn't do much at all once you have over 4GB. You're talking out of your ass.

Considering games can use 4GB of ram themselves, you will need at least 6GB to feed the rest of your system. 4GB of ram is nowhere near the cap of diminishing returns. Taking a few sticks of RAM out of my rig (I'm running 16GB atm) will significantly reduce the performance of most modern games. I've had to take a few out and replace them, so this I know.

You sure seem to 'know' a lot for someone who's focusing on parts which are so low on the priority for gaming performance.

Yes, some games can use 4GB by themselves, but most don't, and the ones that do can often run comfortably on less because they're just taking advantage of the extra space you have. As for 16GB, that's a waste of money; taking 3 4GB sticks out of your machine might show a noticeable decrease in performance (I doubt it), but pulling out two and throwing them away wouldn't.

So, now I've answered your cherry picked response, how about you tell me more about how important the RAM and HDD are to gaming?

 

[Playful Pony]

Honestly I don't think it's all that big a deal if a game doesn't show up for my prefered system. There are many games out there exclusive to the PC, or to the PS3, or the xBox. It seems to me that nearly all titles for the Nintendo consoles are exclusive to it. People don't seem to complain so much that they can't play those games on other consoles?

I'm with you on the controller options, I don't much enjoy playing an FPS without keyboard and mouse. Why? Because I SUCK at it! X3

In the end, the games eclusive to PC are games I enjoy far more than most of those exclusive to consoles. I love the mod support that so many PC games get, 70% of the games I play on a regular basis, I only do thanks to mods having given them new, amazing life.

I'd rather focus on the double standard that rears its ugly head every so often, like today. PC Gamers upset that a game is being released on another system that they don't have? = Entitled Brats

I was ready to start the killing when I read that shit... Geezus. Makes me ashamed to play games on the PC X3.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

so I'm bitching now?.....anyway I'm just saying its an annoying phrase that I feel is overused and all to often has a handwave,

I wasn't saying you were bitching there. I just thought you actually brought up a good, if unrelated, point about how descriptive it is. The you wasn't you as in Vault. It was you as in the person who is using it.
Unrelated but the Escapist should really have quotes in smaller font to save space.

 

[Bigsmith]

I'm sorry that you feel this way.
Personally I don't feel we, as pc gamers, have it that bad.

I mean this exists and I pretty much own all of my games on it:

I can understand having a download cap which must suck balls but really I feel that that's all you have holding you back.

 

[Cabisco]

There's more money in making console games, simple as that. The industry has nothing against you.

Thats what I pretty much thought, companies wanna make money and consoles is the best chance for that. Plus theirs the piracy horror stories which must put at least some people off.

 

[Rainboq]

Meanwhile, in PC land.

[spoiler/]

[/S][/spoiler]

gaaaahhh....[i/]that game[/i]

it sits there mocking me....I cannot play it because of my internet cap

I feel your pain sister, I have a shitty internet cap as well...

(then again, I just download everything on campus )