Starcraft 2!!!!!

[ronmcdon]

Originally Posted by aznpoopy

pc gaming is a shadow of its former self. there used to be stores that sold pc games exclusively (babbages for example). you had to go to fucking toys r us to pick up a console game. nowadays go into any store and look at the PC 'section.' it's probably three or four shelves tucked away in the back of the store, stocked by a bunch of B-rated shit titles you never heard of and a few big games that are more than four years old. all big releases used to be PC only. some of you may recall that moh: allied assault and call of duty 1 were PC only. nowadays they are console games with shitty PC ports.

price of a PC was not a factor in PC's demise. e.g.: PC was going strongest when rigs were basically at their most expensive, and you had to upgrade very often. processing requirements since have kind of plateaued significantly since then. you can run the same computer for 4-5 years and maybe buy a $200 graphics card somewhere in there, and you'll be pretty good for the whole span. back in the day, you'd be going from high quality setting down to barely chugging along unless you bought a straight up brand new computer every 2 years. (thank god for increasing dependency on GPUs, on that note)

so what killed PC gaming?
#1 piracy. yes it did
#2 but more importantly, consoles closing the gap in terms of power. yeah PCs will always be faster, but not so much faster than you can offer a significantly better experience on PC vs. console, as you could in say, 1998. imagine trying to get half life 1 running on a ps1? yeah right. didn't get ported until ps2 came out a few years later, and the port experience was, of course, inferior to the original PC experience you could get 2 years in the past.

nowadays the PC version will probably run significantly higher res, better lighting, textures, etc. - assuming the developer cares enough to make the PC version better (as oftentimes they do not). but at the end of the day, the difference in graphics isn't striking enough to make someone throw out their 360 and build a PC. totally different story than 10-15 years ago. pc had fmv, full voice, 3d graphics and then textured 3d graphics, etc. for years before console caught up, which really only happened with this latest 360/ps3 generation.

well a lot of PC games are now sold online & downloaded via sites like Steam.
it works out for the buyer b/c it's convenient, usually no sales tax, & many specials.
(I got Bioshock & Mass Effect for $5 each)
retail stores are pretty much unnecessary & I can see how it wouldn't be their priority.
Even without the sites, it's often cheaper to buy games on Amazon to skimp tax.

Personally I'm not too concerned about the graphic capabilities of a pc, even though I agree it's a pro.
There are just a good deal of games that are PC exclusive, despite porting.
I just prefer PC games to consoles in general, I don't know how to explain in detail.
I prefer the use of a keyboard & mouse, vs. some joystick.

I also like the fact that even new PC games are still $50, vs $60 for consoles.
To me, PC gaming actually works out to be more affordable than consoles, but I'm probably not in the majority.
In the past few years I've purchased less than a dozen games combined for my 360 & Ps3, vs. dozens for my PC.