PC gaming is just too much hassle but there is hope.

[mohit9206]

I recently bought a retail copy of LA Noire and tried to install it but it kept giving me errors and would not play.Did everything one would be expected to do in such a situation like re-installing,patching,updating,etc and still nothing.Went on forums and realized many people having same problems with no solutions.
I have come to realize that PC gaming is indeed too much of a hassle.There is no way someone who just wants to play a game can bear all that crap that accompanies PC gaming.Granted that its mostly the fault of the developers in this case Rockstar who are popular for shoddy PC ports but eventually we have to bear the burden of their lazy work.PC gaming has its benefits like cheap games(good for broke people like me) and better graphics but there is no ease of use.When a game you buy does not work due to lazy work of the developer its quite annoying and an exercise in frustration trying to get it to work.
This is not supposed to be a rant but it will be better going forward now that a new generation of gaming is upon us,the developers make sure that their PC ports of console games are of better quality than they have been thus far.Not everyone has the patience to try to get it to work for hours with no success.Also restrictions like 30fps cap,poor mouse and keyboard controls,lack of pc specific features,crappy DRM like Uplay,RGSC,GFWL,resolution restrictions,etc.
Here's hoping now that the new consoles have PC like architecture and are fairly powerful we will get to enjoy some good ports.

 

[Zhukov]

Ready your flameshield good sir. You're gonna need it.

I do most of my gaming on a PC, but I understand the plug-in-and-go appeal of consoles.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

i didn't play LA noire so I don't know for sure, but I do believe you found one of the exception rather than the rule of making a game run (modern games at least). Yes consoles are "plug n play" in essentially they will run whatever game is shoved into them that is respective to their console provider, but pc games do have plenty of positives (even some ones you missed) that I feel out weigh the negatives long term (assuming you will be gaming for years to come).

Best of luck to playing whatever console suits you I suppose.

 

[GoaThief]

It's not just poor ports, a computer has so many variables from hardware through to shitty programs people have installed on their computers - any of which can throw up unexpected problems.

I have always been PC orientated but I won't pretend for one second that they're simple beasts which are user friendly when it comes to games. Things have certainly improved and thankfully controllers are making a welcome return enabling people to game away from uncomfortable desks but for someone new especially, it can be a daunting and often frustrating task.

New consoles on the way will help the current power gap, and the likes of Killzone Shadow Fall are certainly on a par, if not above the PC's finest. I see little reason to not recommend the new, unsure or PC illiterate a Playstation 4 instead as they'll have a much better overall gaming experience.

 

[mohit9206]

After hours of fiddling finally got it to work.I love PC gaming and its my primary system as i cannot afford console games but sometimes poor PC ports can be a pain the ass lol.

Captcha:Ginger bread.No thanks i am done with Android.Moving on to WP8.

EDIT: Facing very poor performance with FPS constantly dropping below 20 and into the 10's and even into single digit figures making the game an unplayable mess.My PC is fairly powerful with Core i3 cpu and radeon 7750 and 8 gigs of ram(1440*900 res).Anyone have any suggestions to improve performance is appreciated.SSAO and AA disabled with other settings on balanced or performance.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

After hours of fiddling finally got it to work.I love PC gaming and its my primary system as i cannot afford console games but sometimes poor PC ports can be a pain the ass lol.

Captcha:Ginger bread.No thanks i am done with Android.Moving on to WP8.

EDIT: Facing very poor performance with FPS constantly dropping below 20 and into the 10's and even into single digit figures making the game an unplayable mess.My PC is fairly powerful with Core i3 cpu and radeon 7750 and 8 gigs of ram(1440*900 res).Anyone have any suggestions to improve performance is appreciated.SSAO and AA disabled with other settings on balanced or performance.

i3's aren't horrible but that is a bit...dated, and as mentioned LA noire is just a shitty port (doesn't run well regardless) so beyond tinkering more and turning settings on and off (sometimes the stupidest thing hinders the entire game from running) i can't suggest much more...maybe editing the settings/configurations file, but even then that's only if you read that as a fix online somewhere in their forums.

 

[mohit9206]

After hours of fiddling finally got it to work.I love PC gaming and its my primary system as i cannot afford console games but sometimes poor PC ports can be a pain the ass lol.

Captcha:Ginger bread.No thanks i am done with Android.Moving on to WP8.

EDIT: Facing very poor performance with FPS constantly dropping below 20 and into the 10's and even into single digit figures making the game an unplayable mess.My PC is fairly powerful with Core i3 cpu and radeon 7750 and 8 gigs of ram(1440*900 res).Anyone have any suggestions to improve performance is appreciated.SSAO and AA disabled with other settings on balanced or performance.

i3's aren't horrible but that is a bit...dated, and as mentioned LA noire is just a shitty port (doesn't run well regardless) so beyond tinkering more and turning settings on and off (sometimes the stupidest thing hinders the entire game from running) i can't suggest much more...maybe editing the settings/configurations file, but even then that's only if you read that as a fix online somewhere in their forums.

Thanks for the tip i fixed the FPS problem by changing the rendering mode from multi core to single core now i get constant 30fps.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

After hours of fiddling finally got it to work.I love PC gaming and its my primary system as i cannot afford console games but sometimes poor PC ports can be a pain the ass lol.

Captcha:Ginger bread.No thanks i am done with Android.Moving on to WP8.

EDIT: Facing very poor performance with FPS constantly dropping below 20 and into the 10's and even into single digit figures making the game an unplayable mess.My PC is fairly powerful with Core i3 cpu and radeon 7750 and 8 gigs of ram(1440*900 res).Anyone have any suggestions to improve performance is appreciated.SSAO and AA disabled with other settings on balanced or performance.

i3's aren't horrible but that is a bit...dated, and as mentioned LA noire is just a shitty port (doesn't run well regardless) so beyond tinkering more and turning settings on and off (sometimes the stupidest thing hinders the entire game from running) i can't suggest much more...maybe editing the settings/configurations file, but even then that's only if you read that as a fix online somewhere in their forums.

Thanks for the tip i fixed the FPS problem by changing the rendering mode from multi core to single core now i get constant 30fps.

ah yes, that is such an annoying fix (you don't think it would be that), I had the same thing happen when I tried playing Star Wars: The force unleashed, it was an absolute wreck trying to get that thing running on anything more than 2 cores, but ran flawlessly once I fixed that.


best of luck that the game runs smooth from here on out.

 

[rasputin0009]

If you set up a PC to do gaming and ONLY gaming, it's actually pretty plug in and play like consoles. Granted there's silly shit on the developers' end every once in a while (what with having to code for a thousand different computer parts). I remember Deus Ex: Human Revolution not running properly on my computer and the only way I could fix it was to manually going into the game's code and changing a little tiny 1 to a 0. And I only figured it out after 6 hours of Googling.

Also, there was a problem with my Java not updating properly on my Windows 7 computer. I couldn't even remove Java normally to start over. I had to specifically find a Windows 95 removal program to get it off, and then manually update Java in three different stages to finally get it to update correctly. That only took 12 hours of Googling.

 

[Candidus]

Snip

How much of a hassle you find it really depends on your aptitude. If I have a problem, I fix it in a few minutes. I don't remember the last game that really gave me trouble. Perhaps Supreme Commander (the original), running out of RAM on a 32 bit system. That's SIX years ago. A long time to go without a significant hiccup.

Also restrictions like 30fps cap,poor mouse and keyboard controls,lack of pc specific features,crappy DRM like Uplay,RGSC,GFWL,resolution restrictions,etc.

30fps limit is ALWAYS modded out. Same goes for resolution restrictions.

Poor mouse and keyboard controls can be solved by grabbing a 360 PC controller. Those are standard; if you don't own one it's no better than not owning a keyboard. There's just no excuse.

DRM? Sure, the PC platform has many competing DRM digital distribution services (dds, not to be confused with ddos) because it's an open platform. Your consoles have one DRM dds because they are a closed platform. Which is why you don't have mods OR cheap games.

Seriously, learn to be a better troubleshooter (for that rare case where there's any problem at all) and the PC stands tall over everything else.

 

[Doom972]

First of all, you may want to get your games on Steam next time. This way you don't have to install or patch anything. You just download and play and if anything extra needs to be installed, it's installed automatically (Except drivers for obvious reasons).
You might still encounter problems with the game you get there, so it's always worth it to check articles and forum posts about games before getting them.

As for LA Noire - it's a port which I understand is a bit rushed. Most of the games you can get work much better.

Hope things work out better next time.

EDIT: Also everything the guy above me said.

 

[clippen05]

I recently bought a retail copy of LA Noire and tried to install it but it kept giving me errors and would not play.Did everything one would be expected to do in such a situation like re-installing,patching,updating,etc and still nothing.Went on forums and realized many people having same problems with no solutions.
I have come to realize that PC gaming is indeed too much of a hassle.There is no way someone who just wants to play a game can bear all that crap that accompanies PC gaming.Granted that its mostly the fault of the developers in this case Rockstar who are popular for shoddy PC ports but eventually we have to bear the burden of their lazy work.PC gaming has its benefits like cheap games(good for broke people like me) and better graphics but there is no ease of use.When a game you buy does not work due to lazy work of the developer its quite annoying and an exercise in frustration trying to get it to work.
This is not supposed to be a rant but it will be better going forward now that a new generation of gaming is upon us,the developers make sure that their PC ports of console games are of better quality than they have been thus far.Not everyone has the patience to try to get it to work for hours with no success.Also restrictions like 30fps cap,poor mouse and keyboard controls,lack of pc specific features,crappy DRM like Uplay,RGSC,GFWL,resolution restrictions,etc.
Here's hoping now that the new consoles have PC like architecture and are fairly powerful we will get to enjoy some good ports.

Because your experience is indicative of everyone's right? There's no way anyone can play on PC without trouble. Well, according to you an opinion is word of law than I say that PC is the most user-friendly platform because I've never had any problems on it, while my consoles freeze all the time. I've never had ANY problems on PC, so it must be hassle-free. See how pretentious I seem, yeah, that's what you did...

And to what else you have to say... well... here's what I have to say

At least on PC I have a choice what Digital Distributor I want to use (in most cases) In the case of consoles you are stuck with the terrible service provided by the console maker, which is rarely price-competive.

In regards to PC mouse and keyboard controls, again, you seem to think that your opinion is law. Guess what, there's this thing called preference. But if you really want to argue superior control type, than how come when PC players and console players were put against each other by Microsoft the PC players always won? Seems like M&K is better to me...

Resolution restrictions and 30 FPS comment? You are kidding right? Considering few games have an FPS cap and have support for many different resolutions I don't understand where you are going, especially when consoles have far less options in regards to resolution and all games are frame capped.

Oh, and by the way, the "next-gen" consoles are already being beaten by last gen PC components... so... yeah... about that fairly powerful comment...

I'm fine with consoles, but when people try to purport them as things they are not... well I will call your account into question.

 

[TehCookie]

Wouldn't making consoles like PCs make them as much of a hassle to deal with as PCs? Or am I reading the OP wrong.

With PCs you get more bad ports because of their diverse hardware, you have the ability to fix them. While with consoles you're unlikely to get a bad port but when you do you're screwed and it's out of your hands. I wouldn't say ones better than the other, and it all comes down to preference.

 

[SwiftRyde]

It's worth the hassle. Cheaper games (A lot cheapers than in consoles), mods, Better graphics and perfomance.

Not saying "PC MASTER RACE", but I think that it's superior in many ways. But consoles have their good things too (obviously).

 

[Something Amyss]

Ready your flameshield good sir. You're gonna need it.

I do most of my gaming on a PC, but I understand the plug-in-and-go appeal of consoles.

I was watching some YouTube show, and the guy made an awesome point that really should have occurred to me years ago.

You're either into the hardware or you're not.

Half my income is from people who don't know how to deal with computers. There are people out there who will pay to have a CD drive installed, or the cabled plugged into their new HDTV (I'm not even talking about mounting/installation, just plugging the shit in).

And God bless 'em.

Some of the tech end is the simplest stuff in the world. Can you turn a screwdriver? You can install like 80% of components. But opening up something complex seems scary and a lot of people don't have the interest to learn how to swap the batteries in their remote.

I liked the ease-of-play of consoles, but that changed with mandatory patches that can take as long as a PC download and the like. Tech doesn't scare me, I'm using a custom (albeit low-end) built PC that uses exactly one piece from my last PC, and that was a cost-saving measure I'll remedy when I have some more cash to spare. Probably a month or two tops. Even I found some convenience in consoles. But even as PCs become more streamlined and consoles become more PC-like, yeah. Some people don't want to deal with upgrades. Some people would rather ship a box off and say "fix it."

And honestly, when put into perspective, I get that. I am infinitely more ready to handle a problem if it's in a field of interest. I probably wouldn't bother with even the simplest of car repairs, even though I installed my own stereo for my prior two cars and installed stereos and speakers for friends. Why? Audio interests me. Automotive? Couldn't give a crap. Sometimes I even trade favours with people. Fix this for that. It's amicable.

Long winded version of "I agree."

It's just interesting that, until recently, I never thought of it that way.

 

[Something Amyss]

It's worth the hassle. Cheaper games (A lot cheapers than in consoles), mods, Better graphics and perfomance.

Not saying "PC MASTER RACE", but I think that it's superior in many ways. But consoles have their good things too (obviously).

Oh, you totally are saying it.

Nah.

Cheap gaming is actually the primary draw for me, BTW, so I agree. Hell, I still tend towards games where I can use a 360 controller. It's totally worth it.

-EDIT- for me. Totally worth it for me. Others may find their mileage varying.

 

[Overusedname]

I'm an avid player on both, though I don't think I've played a single true high-end graphics PC game. I like both in completely different ways, and it all comes down to how I'm sitting while playing really.

I hate long form games on PC that aren't at a relaxed pace, and prefer console overall just because I prefer those genres, I think its that simple for me. I hate being haunched over a game. I know USB controllers exist but...meh.

 

[Gennadios]

Your first mistake was buying PC games retail.

Steam is like a console in that to publish on it they have to make sure a game can launch on the majority of systems. They don't necessarily play those games and they may very well end up shit, but they do launch.

Your second mistake, as you already pointed out, was buying a Rockstar game.

Their ports are shit and I recall LA Noire is a GFWL title, now that it's officially dead, you won't be getting any support for it so getting that mofo running will take effort, I spent 6 hours on the first Batman game. I do have a gifted Steam copy of LA Noire and ran it with no problems before I got bored, however.

 

[RaNDM G]

I recently bought a retail copy of LA Noire and tried to install it but it kept giving me errors and would not play.

There's your problem. L.A. Noire had a notoriously bad PC port, and Rockstar customer service will not touch that game.

EDIT: Facing very poor performance with FPS constantly dropping below 20 and into the 10's and even into single digit figures making the game an unplayable mess.My PC is fairly powerful with Core i3 cpu and radeon 7750 and 8 gigs of ram(1440*900 res).Anyone have any suggestions to improve performance is appreciated.SSAO and AA disabled with other settings on balanced or performance.

Your graphics card and RAM are decent, but i3 processing barely handles modern titles.

The i5 3570K runs for around $220, but if you have the money, you may as well get an i7 3770K for $320.

That's still cheaper than a PS4, mind you.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Aside from obvious shitty ports like LA Noir, I've had less hassle playing PC games than I've had playing console games since I can easily modify things to fit my liking.

The current gen, as well as the upcoming gen, are arguably more hassle than PC gaming is/will be due to all the restrictions each manufacturer has/will put into effect. If Microsoft hadn't 180'd on all the things they announced, it would have been FAAAAAAAAAAAAAR worse.