Misunderstanding PC gaming

[Calcium]

1. Fair enough.
2. Not quite. Though the problems I've experienced regarding crippling bugs resolve around clients more so than the actual games. Having something that works alright for over a year and then breaks unexplainedly, requiring you to spend a week searching for the obscure bug and realising the 'fix' is to open the command prompt and enter a line of code every-single-time you want to play a game? That's just the kind of nonsense that happens every now and then.

Personally though, I assume it's the attitude of dem elitists that puts people off. I don't even play on consoles anymore, though calling myself a 'pc gamer' would make me feel... Well, let's say I'll just stick to 'gamer' if I have to label myself.

 

[Arina Love]

All i know is i dropped fucking 1000$ on PC (don't live in us) and it now lottery whenever games actually work on it. Tomb Raider worked ok but Grid 2 crashed video drivers as well as Far Cry 3.

Service people can't help, no news or working solution from Nvidia or Microsoft.

Tried every solution i found on google and eventually gave up, now i have 1000$ reddit and anime machine because i don't trust that it will actually play game i bought.

So here you go my experience in PC gaming, and precisely why i will be buying next gen consoles. PC gaming = never again.

Okay let me guess:

You bought it at a store after the guy says it goes "vroom vroom super fast."

And what specs do you have? If You dropped 1,000$ on a 8800 and a dual core I would feel sorry for you. Most 1,000$ computers are absolute scams or master machines if you built it yourself. The latter shouldn't be that finicky.

Well i don't have a best buy in my country but yeah i bought ready made from trusted retailer in Russia that deals with only PCs and parts for them.
It's I5 3570 with GTX 660 TI and 8 gigs of Corsair RAM and it was great value for money, compared with everything that i researched. If i bought ready made PC it dosenlt mean i can't read or research tech on internet, i just rather not to deal with assembly and willing to play extra 100 bucks.

 

[Something Amyss]

Isn't that more of a console problem, considering used games on PC shouldn't be available at all? Or are you talking about the minimum requirements for each game?

The complaint is about hardware/software compatibility, and it is an issue if you're not willing to put some work into it. PC gamers have a tendency to be DIYers, so they tend not to see this as an actual flaw. Sometimes, it's not a bug but a feature.

Case in point: My PC's specs smoke the minimum and even the weak link on my computer (graphics card) is well better than the recommended for Alpha Protocol, but it plays at like 3 FPS on my computer even with all the settings at minimum.

I could probably find some support on this, though I was never arsed.

 

[Arina Love]

All i know is i dropped fucking 1000$ on PC (don't live in us) and it now lottery whenever games actually work on it. Tomb Raider worked ok but Grid 2 crashed video drivers as well as Far Cry 3.

Service people can't help, no news or working solution from Nvidia or Microsoft.

Tried every solution i found on google and eventually gave up, now i have 1000$ reddit and anime machine because i don't trust that it will actually play game i bought.

So here you go my experience in PC gaming, and precisely why i will be buying next gen consoles. PC gaming = never again.

Okay let me guess:

You bought it at a store after the guy says it goes "vroom vroom super fast."

And what specs do you have? If You dropped 1,000$ on a 8800 and a dual core I would feel sorry for you. Most 1,000$ computers are absolute scams or master machines if you built it yourself. The latter shouldn't be that finicky.

Well i don't have a best buy in my country but yeah i bought ready made from trusted retailer in Russia that deals with only PCs and parts for them.
It's I5 3570 with GTX 660 TI and 8 gigs of Corsair RAM and it was great value for money, compared with everything that i researched. If i bought ready made PC it dosenlt mean i can't read or research tech on internet, i just rather not to deal with assembly and willing to play extra 100 bucks.

Ready Mades are watered down trash most of the time. Some companies even force it to be obsolete by making certain parts non upgradable.

There is a big no no in terms of buying PCs, and its never buy it from a mass producer.

If you must, get the off the shelf parts yourself and pay the guy at the tech support desk to do it. Pre builts are designed to be money pits from the get go, and not meant to do anything else.

Even brands like alienware are guilty of this, its better to just pick the parts yourself.

That's why i made sure to get what i need and not what people said i need. That store i bought it in, lets you choose stuff you want and they assemble it for you AND add 2 year warranty for free on every part of PC. It just happened they had ready made pc with specs i wanted because it's a most popular config in Russia right now. It just they can't do anything about the driver and shitty MS DirectX Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) that for some reason has problems in some games not all of them but some.
They tested RAM, Video card and even PSU everything is working perfectly.

 

[hutchy27]

All i know is i dropped fucking 1000$ on PC (don't live in us) and it now lottery whenever games actually work on it. Tomb Raider worked ok but Grid 2 crashed video drivers as well as Far Cry 3.

Service people can't help, no news or working solution from Nvidia or Microsoft.

Tried every solution i found on google and eventually gave up, now i have 1000$ reddit and anime machine because i don't trust that it will actually play game i bought.

So here you go my experience in PC gaming, and precisely why i will be buying next gen consoles. PC gaming = never again.

Okay let me guess:

You bought it at a store after the guy says it goes "vroom vroom super fast."

And what specs do you have? If You dropped 1,000$ on a 8800 and a dual core I would feel sorry for you. Most 1,000$ computers are absolute scams or master machines if you built it yourself. The latter shouldn't be that finicky.

Well i don't have a best buy in my country but yeah i bought ready made from trusted retailer in Russia that deals with only PCs and parts for them.
It's I5 3570 with GTX 660 TI and 8 gigs of Corsair RAM and it was great value for money, compared with everything that i researched. If i bought ready made PC it dosenlt mean i can't read or research tech on internet, i just rather not to deal with assembly and willing to play extra 100 bucks.

Ready Mades are watered down trash most of the time. Some companies even force it to be obsolete by making certain parts non upgradable.

There is a big no no in terms of buying PCs, and its never buy it from a mass producer.

If you must, get the off the shelf parts yourself and pay the guy at the tech support desk to do it. Pre builts are designed to be money pits from the get go, and not meant to do anything else.

Even brands like alienware are guilty of this, its better to just pick the parts yourself.

That's why i made sure to get what i need and not what people said i need. That store i bought it in, lets you choose stuff you want and they assemble it for you AND add 2 year warranty for free on every part of PC. It just happened they had ready made pc with specs i wanted because it's a most popular config in Russia right now. It just they can't do anything about the driver and shitty MS DirectX Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR) that for some reason has problems in some games not all of them but some.
They tested RAM, Video card and even PSU everything is working perfectly.

I went to similar place in Britain, pick the parts, they put it all together and you get like 2 years warranty. All that for a very reasonable price.

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

Well said.

You can buy an entry level gaming capable PC for about £350, nicely spec'd one for £600, and at £1000 you're beyond any sense of reason.

PC gaming in absolute terms is more expensive than console gaming, but your PC doubles as a general purpose computer, as well. Not to mention that, in the long run, you save so much on Steam sales, the likes of which just aren't seen in console sales.

The compatibility issues argument is a bit silly. GoG even go to the effort of making older DOS games compatible with modern Windows. Any modern game that can't get itself going on a modern Windows installation (Vista, 7, 8, as they work off the same base kernel) has more pressing issues to deal with, most prominently, incompetent developers.

Still, if I'm to get a console this generation, it will more than likely be a PS4. It seems like the least of the three evils. My PS3 died a year ago, and yet have not suffered at all. My PC has done all my gaming.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Well, to be fair about cost, think about it like this:

The Xbox 360 is 7 years old now. Therefore, if someone got an xbox on launch and that xbox hasn't failed on him (I know, it's a huge stretch, but it's a hypothetical), then that person would have had his Xbox 360 for 7 years while only paying $400 (or whatever the launch price of the Xbox 360 was, I honestly don't remember).

Now on the flip side, does anyone use a 7 year old PC for playing modern games? Hell no. So if someone got a new gaming PC at the same that that the xbox 360 was released, they've more than likely upgraded that PC at least once.

Therefore, the Xbox 360 would still cost less if it survived for the entire console cycle than a PC would.

Now, of course we live in the real world where this isn't necessarily the case. My Xbox 360 has died 3 times, so the initial cost of $400 + $300 worth of repairs + $50 a year of Xbox Live puts the grand total at $1050. Combine that with the much greater cost of games on the Xbox 360 versus the PC, and the two platforms come out to cost about the same, even if you end up having to upgrade your PC in the middle of the console cycle.

So I definitely wouldn't say that PC gaming costs less than console gaming, it ends up costing the same amount, or more depending on the PC you get, but while the costs are about equal, you do get a better experience on the PC, what with being able to play more games, at higher resolutions, with better graphics, and with mods.

Mostly this. There's also the fact that some people (read: computer n00bs) simply don't know what to buy and don't know what kind of performance to expect for what they paid. Not only that, I don't know a lot of people who want to own desktop and gaming laptops cost about 50% more than a similar desktop. Pc gaming is cheaper if you know what your doing and have what you need (I, for example, would need a good monitor)

Sometimes it's just easier to have multiple devices

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

guys, if people don't want to, let them get on with it, you're not going to convert anyone to PC with these threads.peoples minds are set to their prefered choice.

if anyone has genuine questions about making the transition to PC gaming, they'll no doubt make a thread and we can all jump on board with advice.

anyone thing water cooling is worth it?
noise vs cost

 

[MajorTomServo]

*list of games and prices*

Yeah... no. That's a terrible argument. Here's my list.

---------------------
Console Peasant Games

New Super Mario Bros. Wii-$40
Uncharted 3-$18
Dark Souls-$18
Metal Gear Solid 4-$12
---------------------

PC Games

New Super Mario Bros. Wii-n/a
Uncharted 3-n/a
Dark Souls-$30
Metal Gear Solid 4-n/a


Console gaming is cheaper. It just is. I know PC gaming "can be cheap," but even low-end builds have 2-4 times the up-front cost, and you have to upgrade them more often. No amount of f2p games that you play twice and never touch again, or DRM-laden steam sales on games you can't sell when you're done will change that.

Also, when I want to play a game, I want to put a disk in a tray and go. I don't want to spend an hour on google trying to find a solution to the bizarre error message I'm getting that won't let me play the game that I payed for.

One more thing, if you just can't live without all those "quirky," pretentious, story-heavy side-scrollers known as indie games, a lot of them are available on XBLA and PSN.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Someone has probably already brought this up, but in the long run, depending how many games you buy, a PC can be cheaper. Most games go on sale within a month. I preordered Tomb Raider for maybe $32, Sleeping Dogs for about $27, and had preordered Homefront, Brink, Rage, and a few other games for 15-20% off back when D2D was still around. Also got Black Ops 2 + Borderlands 2 season pass, both preorders, for $55.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

*list of games and prices*

Yeah... no. That's a terrible argument. Here's my list.

---------------------
Console Peasant Games

New Super Mario Bros. Wii-$40
Uncharted 3-$18
Dark Souls-$18
Metal Gear Solid 4-$12
---------------------

PC Games

New Super Mario Bros. Wii-n/a
Uncharted 3-n/a
Dark Souls-$30
Metal Gear Solid 4-n/a


Console gaming is cheaper. It just is. I know PC gaming "can be cheap," but even low-end builds have 2-4 times the up-front cost, and you have to upgrade them more often. No amount of f2p games that you play twice and never touch again, or DRM-laden steam sales on games you can't sell when you're done will change that.

Also, when I want to play a game, I want to put a disk in a tray and go. I don't want to spend an hour on google trying to find a solution to the bizarre error message I'm getting that won't let me play the game that I payed for.

One more thing, if you just can't live without all those "quirky," pretentious, story-heavy side-scrollers known as indie games, a lot of them are available on XBLA and PSN.

First off, Dark Souls on PC comes with the DLC, which is $15 on PSN (not sure about XBL). Second, Dark Souls - $15 [http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/action/dark-souls-prepare-die-edition-na/]. I don't really ever get "bizarre error messages", and I have hundreds of PC games.

 

[Frezzato]

:words:

So google one? There's several that run perfectly fine. Try http://hackingnation.org/

One thing I will say though about the low framerates is that you do need a more powerful computer to run emulation for modern systems successfully with good fps. Because basically you are running windows and then you are running an entire console in the background on top of it, so if you normally only get like 30-35 FPS for games designed to run on PC, then you're likely going to have some issues. This technically could drive up the cost of a PC by potentially 150-300$ for a better GPU and CPU. But it's still cheaper than owning every single console and a PC.

By all apppearances, Hackingnation [http://blog.extramaster.net/2012/10/3ds-emulator-112-is-fake.html] is [http://www.emutalk.net/threads/54465-HackingNation-s-3DS-emulator] a [http://www.webutation.net/go/review/hackingnation.org] fraud [http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/hackingnation.org]. And while I would love to test out every unsigned, 3rd party executable floating around the net, I'll pass. Who knows? Maybe one day there will be perfect emulation software to run legally-owned discs of a non-Windows format. That, for me, would be a happy day indeed.

I want to make myself perfectly clear. When I asked if there were any emulators I said:

...that's not a boast. I would really love to have a PS3 emulator! For entirely legal use of my discs of course.

I meant it. Great, I would no longer have to worry about a dead console. No worries. Believe me, I would love for the day to come when statements like this are actually true (emphasis is mine):

Technically all games are available on PC. It's just a matter of having a proper emulator. I can play Red Dead Redemption or Heavy Rain on PC if I want to. I can get every single old school game: battle toads, mario, echo the dolphin, street fighter; all saved on my computer in under a single GB of space.

Exclusivity is not something that will stop a PC gamer with an internet connection and a willingness to follow basic instructions.

...but today is not that day.

 

[MajorTomServo]

First off, Dark Souls on PC comes with the DLC, which is $15 on PSN (not sure about XBL). Second, Dark Souls - $15 [http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/action/dark-souls-prepare-die-edition-na/]. I don't really ever get "bizarre error messages", and I have hundreds of PC games.

Valid point on the DLC, but that page looks like a sale to me... a temporary price drop.

And cool, I didn't know that error messages don't exist. Guess the entire subforum on the Steam boards dedicated to them are just console players spreading slander. [http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/]

 

[Assassin Xaero]

First off, Dark Souls on PC comes with the DLC, which is $15 on PSN (not sure about XBL). Second, Dark Souls - $15 [http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/action/dark-souls-prepare-die-edition-na/]. I don't really ever get "bizarre error messages", and I have hundreds of PC games.

Valid point on the DLC, but that page looks like a sale to me... a temporary price drop.

And cool, I didn't know that error messages don't exist. Guess the entire subforum on the Steam boards dedicated to them are just console players spreading slander. [http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/]

I never said they don't exist, I said I never really get them get them. Your original comment:

Also, when I want to play a game, I want to put a disk in a tray and go. I don't want to spend an hour on google trying to find a solution to the bizarre error message I'm getting that won't let me play the game that I payed for.

seemed to imply that they happen every single time you go to play a game. If anything, sometimes there are issues with older games (you know, games that you can't play on consoles anyway since they shafted backwards compatibility), and it is a one time fix.

 

[Edguy]

1. the cost of a pc is too high and you have to constantly buy new hardware.
- you can buy a pc for $700 and be able to play almost every modern game at highest settings(excluding crysis 3 and games similar to it) with decent resolution plus any retro game, including console games from gamecube, ps1, gba, genesis, snes, nes, n64, etc.

2. risk buying games that won't even work.
- steam, gog, and desura all make pc gaming very easy. Just buy the game download and play. Pretty simple stuff. plus if problems do arise online forums and IT assistance from the companies will help you.

Dude, your computer is still twice as expensive (And that seems like a bare minimun if you really want to go for PC-gaming). Also, installing steam, making an account, buying, downloading and installing a game, and set it to the preferable settings, is still a lot more to do than just inserting the disc. Yes, there are a lot benefits to PC gaming, but please don't pretend that there aren't any to console gaming. When I was a kid, and wasn't exactly well versed in the realm of computers, all I had for gaming was my parents' PCs. About 50 % of the games I bough/got back then, I never got to play because I couldn't figure out installation or they otherwise didn't work. That wouldn't have been an issue if I had a PSOne or a Gamecube instead.

 

[Killclaw Kilrathi]

Well, to be fair about cost, think about it like this:

The Xbox 360 is 7 years old now. Therefore, if someone got an xbox on launch and that xbox hasn't failed on him (I know, it's a huge stretch, but it's a hypothetical), then that person would have had his Xbox 360 for 7 years while only paying $400 (or whatever the launch price of the Xbox 360 was, I honestly don't remember).

Now on the flip side, does anyone use a 7 year old PC for playing modern games? Hell no. So if someone got a new gaming PC at the same that that the xbox 360 was released, they've more than likely upgraded that PC at least once.

Therefore, the Xbox 360 would still cost less if it survived for the entire console cycle than a PC would.

Now, of course we live in the real world where this isn't necessarily the case. My Xbox 360 has died 3 times, so the initial cost of $400 + $300 worth of repairs + $50 a year of Xbox Live puts the grand total at $1050. Combine that with the much greater cost of games on the Xbox 360 versus the PC, and the two platforms come out to cost about the same, even if you end up having to upgrade your PC in the middle of the console cycle.

So I definitely wouldn't say that PC gaming costs less than console gaming, it ends up costing the same amount, or more depending on the PC you get, but while the costs are about equal, you do get a better experience on the PC, what with being able to play more games, at higher resolutions, with better graphics, and with mods.

I actually agree with you here, if compared exclusively as gaming rigs getting a console is FAR cheaper.

My take on it though, is that there's also an integration issue to consider. I'm not sure about you personally, but the majority of people own a computer whether they game on it or not. And while I'll happily grant that a computer that's used for work and internet stuff doesn't have to be as powerful as a gaming rig, upgrading it into one that will do the job with modern games is still cheaper than an outright console purchase.

I should also point out that the market is drastically changing when it comes to PC upgrades. Back in 2005 upgrading frequently was a necessity because games were getting substantially prettier all the time, but these days the change in gaming system requirements each year is in a pretty sharp decline. We've basically hit a plateau with graphics, games two years ago are arguably just as realistic looking as current ones and while new rigs might give you a few more FPS older machines can still reliably run newer games.

That said, I'm going by the assumption that you're happy with a PC that's fairly bare-bones when it comes to bells and whistles. A pure gaming rig is pretty damn cheap to build nowadays, but the cost will go up if you also want it to replace your TV. I'm also assuming you have the skill to build it yourself, plenty of people don't and that can add a hefty installation fee to the purchase (though this cost seems to have gone down with so many customers choosing the DIY route). So there's good arguments on both sides.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Okay, slightly off topic question, but the OP mentioned resolution and it got me thinking. I've never really monkeyed around with resolution and pretty much always used the same one. How taxing is resolution when playing games on PC?

It makes a huge difference for me. I have an Nvidia 240m in my laptop. Take a process intensive game like Metro 2033, I can run it on medium to low at 1080p on my TV, medium to high on my laptop's native resolution of 1600x900, and high to very high at 720p (same resolution as current consoles). 720 looks like blocky poo on my laptop but it looks great on my TV because of the higher pixel count and size (27 inches). Therefore, I usually play on my TV at 720p. It's the best way to get more frames per second

 

[Ratties]

The thing I find funny about this. There will be a real fun game out on the Xbox and PS3. Then you will read an article which says that the game is coming to PC. one year later after it's been out, PC owners can now play it. Everybody loses their minds that own a PC. They start getting all hyped, I am just thinking to myself, everybody has already beaten that game and moved on.

 

[Pink Gregory]

I've said this before, but the only thing that perplexes me about some parts the PC gaming community in particular is how, once they're done calling people 'console peasants' unironically like some grotesque Rothschild stereotype and decide to start being inclusive, and bringing across the truth that PC gaming isn't particularly expensive given the right information; that you then are treated to pages of PC specification bragging that seems to imply that these people care more about looking at the damn thing than they are with playing anything.

It's a small minority that do this, but I can understand why people might feel that they're out of their depth when PCs are concerned.

 

[DoPo]

the 'fix' is to open the command prompt and enter a line of code every-single-time you want to play a game?

That is a thing? Wow, I don't think I've seen that. Not since one of my friends had his first PC and that didn't have Windows, that is, but that's not a "fix" it's just how you do stuff normally under DOS. Which was...more than 15 years ago. Not even under Linux did I really needed to fix games using the command line, now that I think of it.

anyone thing water cooling is worth it?
noise vs cost

Well, are you going to overclock the PC? Or do you have problems with heat? If not, I wouldn't really put water cooling for the noise alone. Well, if I have lots of spare money, I might, but I don't. Alternatively, I'd probably do it for the challenge, though it still needs money. If you're bothered by the noise, you can get silent fans and new heat sinks (also, make sure you clean the PC, too) - that should be cheaper.