Another take on why pc gaming is in trouble!

[darkvision]

Here is my opinion.

Top 5 Reasons To Play Games On A Pc:

1) Mouse & Keyboard
2) Games that push technology
3) MMO'S
4) RTS Games
5) RPG'S

Now I'm going to go over why pc gaming is in trouble.

1) With the technology we have consoles can easily have a mouse and keyboard. At some point games will have settings for a mouse and keyboard. Untill then pc's still have still have this to its advantage.

2) The number one thing i always loved about pc gaming was how id, crytek, epic, valve and a few random companys would come out with a game that would push every piece of tech out atm to its limit! Games that would look soooo **** good.. when you first saw it your would say "This game looks **** crazy" and would instantly look at upgrading. The sad truth is... pc gamers dont have that to look forward to anymore. Here is a breakdown.

Epic: Epic designed there unreal 3 engine mainly for consoles (or as tim said.. making changes that benifit consoles more than pc's). When at first it was supposed to be for pc games... If i remeber correctly at a E3.. Tim said that the ut3 engine takes a dump on Doom 3s engine (A Pc Engine). Also they are putting new games out for consoles first (Gears Of War) not on pc. Lastly all there new titles are going to be cross platform... and all pc gamers know.. when this happends... 80% of the time the game is alot worse than if it would have just came out on pc. Quick Example:

UT3: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/unrealtournament2007/index.html?tag=result;title;0
UT04: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/ut2004/index.html?tag=result;title;0

ID: ID software is one of my most favorite pc developers... why? beucase they like to put out a game that pushes current tech to its limit. They might not make the best of games.. but there engines are awesome. Yet again.. we might not have that going for us anymore. ID will be developing there games for the ps3, xbox360 and the pc now. In a year or two when pc tech is far more advanced.. will ID make a new crazy game for pc users... i hope so but prob not.

Crytek: Yesterday as many of you have watched... crytek will no longer be putting out any game just for pc.... this just means no new game pushing current/future pc tech to its limit.. but yet again they might suprise us.

Valve: When valve released hl2 the game looked awesome. Some people were saying it was the best looking pc game to date. (I didn't think so but thats just me) After the orange box went cross platform i don't think we will be seeing any pc only games from valve.. all this means is i don't see them making a game that pushes current/future tech to its limit!

Now all of this is really based on engine stuff and not so much on the game it self! So please keep that in mind!

3) MMO'S are a huge part of pc gaming. I would say over 60% off pc gaming profit it now MMO'S. This is also something that we have over console but not for much longer! Currenty Funcom , makers of Age Of Conan will be releaseing AoC on xbox360. If that does well i think it will be the start of more MMO'S on console... and if that happends, i just dont wanna think about it! (Also i assume blizzard is looking into a console port of wow or a console/pc mmo as we speak)

4) All i can say is... console will never run rts games like a pc can.. EVER!

5) After this current gen of console... pc users are seeing less and less pc only RPGs. I hope this changes soon but i wont hold my breath! All we can look forward to is crappy cross platform games like Two Worlds! ewww

pheww, now this is just why i think pc gaming is in trouble. I know everybody else will and has there own opinion. All i ask is you reply with your input on the subject and try not to flame/bash/insult if possible!

I wanted to put Piracy at number 1 but thats just a never ending topic. So for another day!

thanks,
Darkvision

 

[infornography42]

Consoles are becoming more capable. I guess for the graphics elite this is a bad thing, but from my perspective, this is nothing but good for the games industry as a whole.

To be honest, for the last 3 or 4 years, I have not seen a port from console to PC that I didn't feel was smooth. And generally the PC version does make use of extra graphical capabilities.

I WANT games to come out on both the 360 and the PC. Main reason being that if the DRM on the PC side is too restrictive, then I will feel comfortable with the console version.

Also RTSs are coming out on consoles, but the genre is still going strong on PCs. There are several key games coming out in the next few months.

That said there are several key titles that were going to come out on the PC that I, and several other people will not be buying because of restrictive DRM. If anything is killing PC gaming, that is it.

 

[waxdart]

A big draw back for the PC is they try to put the same UI wrapper over the game that they use for a console. It’s not the same thing.

Oblivion is one example - It holds the PC back as it’s not shoulder button biased medium. Code an alternate navigation method.

If graphics engines scaled to make the most of a system. Then it wouldn't matter what system you are on. ID tech 5 should do this. I hope they don't target the lowest denominator.

I've been playing GTA4 on the ps3. Half the time I feel like I’m playing against the controls and not the game itself. In life I don't struggle to walk up steps and turn a corner unless very drunk.

I also don't like playing in 3rd person. I don't live life in an outer body experience way. The main charter gets in the way of what’s going on in front too which makes it hard to play.

Game play (game world interaction) has a long way to go before it is intuitive and the developers have taken a step backwards when dealing with consoles.

Mind you a lot of the OC RTS and Sim games are bad examples of the wrong tools for the job. I wish they would like me manage the finer points with excel, it's a better tool for the job!