265: Punching the Baby Seal of PC Gaming

[Revenge Revisited]

I gave up PC gameing a long time ago. Most of the time games wouldn't work, or they would work for a little while but then crash later. I'm sticking with the PS3. It only crashes when it overheats and I keep a fan on it so that rarely happens.

 

[sdafdfhrye3245]

I don't understand what is trying to be said here. Can someone help me out? To me it just seems like someone is bitching about how their computer sucks. I am most likely wrong considering I only skimmed the first 3 pages.

 

[Matt_LRR]

Great article Chuck. I know exactly where you'r coming from. I don't tend to have too many issures with mty computer gaming (what little I do) but every time a game acts up on me, a little part of me dies. I have all the current consoles, and aside from the occasional hardware issue (on my 360) or poorly considered 20-minute manditory install (on my PS3) everything I try to play on them works, problem free. So every time something (inevitably) goes wrong on my desktop, I have to ask myself why I'm trying to play it. I'm less comfortable at my PC desk, the screen is smaller, I don't have a surround sound system on my computer, does the game I'm trying to play really warrant the extra effort involved in playing it?

Unfortunately for my sanity (and yours, evidently) the answer is usually, "yes".


Just rest assured, you're not alone.
(in fact, I'd go so far to say that anyone claiming to have "never had problems" with PC games is lying - straight up. They may not have considered their problems to be deal-breakers, but no one PC games without an occasional hardware or driver conflict, or device incompatibility. It just doesn't happen.)

-m

 

[Matt_LRR]

I don't understand what is trying to be said here. Can someone help me out? To me it just seems like someone is bitching about how their computer sucks. I am most likely wrong considering I only skimmed the first 3 pages.

you're wrong. Try reading the whole column.

-m

 

[Artemicion]

Console games are substantially easier to work with. No installation (no mandatory installation), no graphical settings forever put on low and off, and much less expensive - PC games may be cheaper but the rigs required to play them most definitely aren't.

-And yes, I also play PC games. I've got garry's mod running in the background as I write this. I play both, but always have an easier time on the console.

 

[RyePunk]

Meh good riddance. You sound like a rage quitter anyways.

 

[Uber Waddles]

This is why my experience with PC gaming is casual.

I like Consoles because they are simple. Call me an idiot, I dont WANT to learn all the secrets to making a computer. I want to fire my computer up, and do research, entertain myself, etc.

I do like that PC gaming can make beautiful graphics, mods, and controls. But its not worth the hardship Ive endured trying to play MANY of the games I bought. Most of them have me saying "Fuck it", and just playing something on my Xbox.

I dabble into PC Gaming. Team Fortress 2, Halo PC, WoW (I can even run Dalaran!) but thats it. If I want to game, I fire up my console. My PC can run what I want it to, and thats good enough. No Crysis? Ill live.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Maybe I've just been lucky, or maybe I'm just more attentive to details. I wouldn't presume to tell anyone else that it's worth the extra effort for them to get into PC gaming, but for me and millions of other gamers, it absolutely is.

No, we PC gamers are just in denial, crying while we masturbate to benchmark tests of the latest GPU cards.

Or maybe that's just me.

 

[Chaucer345]

While I was growing up my mother would never buy me a game console, but would let me have any PC game I wanted. She believed that if all I could play were PC games I would learn a ton about computers just trying to make the games work.

She was right.

P.S.: Chuck, Hunter is awesome, Null Mysteriis forever.

 

[DigitalSushi]

snip

I'm sorry, but all I read here was 'I'm incompetent at administering my computer' repeated for four pages. Maybe if you didn't buy fucking pre-built Dell computers and actually took and interest in what you are playing your games on you wouldn't have any problems, but since you're the kind of person that bought an iPhone I can see that knowing about how things work really isn't something you're interested in.

Man, I know. Sometimes I stick gum in the DVD drives. Other times I just sort of take off my pants and hump it? Then I get these great pop-up windows and they're in Chinese and Russian, and I click 'em for hours -- it's a fun game! It installs all this crazy software on my computer. Then my monitor catches fire. I use the fire extinguisher on it.

Lather, rinse, repeat!

You mean I'm doing something wrong?

-- Chuck

Excellent article, it`s written so well that PC enthusiast`s are blinded by it and can`t read past page 2.

I`m in full support, I`d be playing on PC`s if it was all plain sailing.

 

[Wardnath]

Heres some ice for you vagina OP, and a copy of Steel Magnolias so you can have a good cry the next time you can't get a PC game to run. Your main problem is that you bought a stock desktop because you obviously lack the basic cognitive and motor functions required to build and excellent gaming rig for half the price you paid for that abomination that is the Dell XPS you bought.

PC gaming is serious business, I hear.

 

[talkstogod]

I modified my first PC years ago & it was tons of fun. I rebuilt it a couple of years ago as a game machine and it took a while but I also enjoyed it and it was a beast. But a month ago when I started having some problems with it, I went online to look around and realized I didn't want to deal with it.

See, since my last build I've gotten a much better job, a 360, and most importantly two kids. Every hour I sink into research and/or maintenance (the construction time is trivial) is an hour less I get to spend either with my kids or actually gaming. There are too many things in my life that I'd rather do than design or maintain a cutting-edge machine. So I grabbed a box from a store, spent an afternoon swapping out the internal components I didn't like, and settled in to uninstall the pre-packaged bloatware... which I worked on until one of my kids wanted to play "Jump on Daddy!" at which point I declared the box finished.

So yeah, I see your point.

 

[chuckwendig]

I cannot imagine if *any other technology* required this level of attention in this day and age.

Oh you'd be suprised heavily. Try pro grade photography for example, where ridiculously expensive gear gives up on you regularly no matter which brand you choose. You have to personally pick up one lens that works good with YOUR dslr body (other six on the same shelf might be getting slightly out of focus for example), when you choose the right one you have to return it a month later because it refuses to work. Sometimes without a reason and sometimes from a 15 cm drop on your matrass (true story). You need to gather epic amounts of knowledge, patience and expertise. You cannot simply expect something to work "just because" you've paid a few thousand dollars for it.

And them cars keep breaking as well, your brand new washing machine burns holes in your new pants despite setting a proper program (true story as well). My phone keeps acting stupid. My mp3 player had to be formatted out of the blue. A screw falls of a 400$ pocket knife. 100$ sunglasses get weird cracks all over their lenses while lying on a desk. All true cases proving that these are trying times and everything is manufactured in "buy it and fuck off" fashion, not only PC games. Ever heard about them legendary console crashes making them bricks?

Yep, back in the day things seemed to work better. Only my g-shock watches endure (a Luminox died on me after 5 months of mild use).

But I still play on my PC, I simply cannot imagine gaming without a mouse and a keyboard.

I see your point, though I'd argue it's not quite the same thing -- technology that fails over time is to be expected. I'm not speaking about the ineluctable entropy, I'm talking about a failure from the get-go.

Also: while I've only sold a couple photos and wouldn't consider myself a pro, I do have a DSLR and a case of lenses. They all work very well and I've had absolutely no problems with them. Very plug-and-play. Works as intended.

-- Chuck

 

[ninjajoeman]

I had the same problem with fallout 3 it just turned out that it only supported a certain type of cpu or something and you had to go to the text file changing a few things. I just looked it up on the internet.

maybe thats why pcs have access to the internet so when they break you can fix them easilly

 

[chuckwendig]

While I was growing up my mother would never buy me a game console, but would let me have any PC game I wanted. She believed that if all I could play were PC games I would learn a ton about computers just trying to make the games work.

She was right.

P.S.: Chuck, Hunter is awesome, Null Mysteriis forever.

Heh, thanks. (If you haven't checked out the new Compacts & Conspiracies PDF, might I recommend it?)

To everyone who dug the article: thanks!

To everyone who wants to throw things at my head: best of luck! I duck and move.

-- Chuck

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

To everyone who wants to throw things at my head: best of luck! I duck and move.

A student of Dubya Fu, then?


Remember, things thrown at you become your possessions.

 

[Fusionxl]

This article sounds like a massive flamebait, you cannot honestly expect to write "Fuck PC gaming" and not majorly piss off a lot of people. How did they even let you publish such a public suicide?

Aside from that, the root of your problems seems to come from buying shit PCs, not from games sucking. Both Crysis and Fallout run like well oiled swiss clockwork on my rig ( custom built, but it's starting to get a little bit old ), there are very few problems that come from games and not from hardware / software conflicts. If all users experienced Crysis crashes every 5 minutes the game would have been patched or pulled off the shelves before you could even find a baby seal at the zoo. Thus, it is your fault.

My suggestion:

1. Give a friend who has some understanding of PCs around 300 to 350 bucks and ask them to build a gaming rig for you. Then give them a cookie.
2. Install 64 bit Windows 7 with video card drivers ( Catalyst Control Center for ATI cards practically makes you breakfast if you want ).
3. ???
4. PROFIT

I will guarantee you can run everything that comes out in the next, oh, 5 years or so without much problem.

 

[FinalDream]

I used to be a PC gamer, from the doom days right up until crysis. Now I just cannot afford the upgrades as working a full time job, paying rent and food and whatnot really adds up. Never mind if the girlfriend wants to go out!

Articles like this make me smile of the fun times I used to have getting stuff to work, slotting games into a console now seems rather mundane!