My problem with computer games.

[Pseudonym2]

I just got a new laptop and I wanted to start playing computer games again. Now I remembered why I stopped.

These were the games I got.

Max Payne 2: worked fine.

King Kong: Successfully installed. I tried to play it but I couldn't convince it that I had administrator privileges for the only profile on my laptop.

Painkiller: I put the first cd in but my laptop refused to read it even though I had auto run. I went to my computer but the laptop couldn't read the CD. All it did was whir a lot.

Next I went to Direct2Drive and tried to take advantage of their sale. They wouldn't accept my credit card and I had to start a PayPal account. Also their customer service doesn't work.

Manhunt: loaded just fine but when I tried to play it, it immediately shut down due to DEP problems. I tried to turn the DEP program off for Manhunt (which requires administrator privileges) but Manhunt needs the DEP program on to work.

Max Payne 1: Won't download. Customer service doesn't work. When I try to download it, a message in Firefox pops up but then disappears before it loads. Nothing shows up in my temp files.


Then I gave up and played Mass Effect for the 360. I put the disk in and turned the X-box on and the game worked. I guess I'm not good enough with computers to be able to run more a fifth of my games.



Note: this leaves out a lot of other things I had to go through.
Edit: My laptop is very good for a laptop and I'm playing slightly older games on purpose. Only one of them is current generation.

 

[toasterslayer]

too expensive. too complicated.

 

[Megacherv]

Steam? Direct2Drive sucks-arse with it's download speeds. I got Saint's Row 2 off of there due to the £5 birthday madness thing, and I almost went mental at the download speeds. Praise the lords that Steam accepted my CD key that they provided, so I downloaded it through their servers.

 

[Contun]

You're playing on a laptop man, they aren't the best choice for PC gaming...
And what exactly is the point of this thread, is this just you complaining?

 

[UberMore]

Maybe your new Laptop sucks.

Hardware errors, or installation errors cause these problems all the time.
And they're all quite old games, so the Laptop should've handled them just fine, with patches to fix any problems and FAQs for the problems that can't be patched.

 

[TelHybrid]

At the end of the day, it's still worth it for all the free mods, the games being cheaper, and all the customizability of your interface, if you can get it all running fine.

Admittedly I still prefer console gaming though, mainly for the JRPGs. =P

 

[TelHybrid]

At the end of the day, it's still worth it for all the free mods, the games being cheaper, and all the customizability of your interface, if you can get it all running fine.

Admittedly I still prefer console gaming though, mainly for the JRPGs and platformers. =P

Edit: whoops pressed quote instead of edit... *facepalms*

 

[Maze1125]

I just got a new laptop

Here's where you went wrong.

Most laptops aren't designed for games, and the ones that are still don't play them as well as an equally priced desktop would.

 

[Daveman]

wow, every game I've ever run has worked perfectly, literally just put it in and install. Also why are you playing such shitty old games? I didn't even think manhunt was released on PC. Also, use steam for christs sake!

 

[squidbuddy99]

My computer is toying with me, I swear. Team Fortress 2 runs either good or below-average. However, it refuses to install Civilization 4! The weirdest part is that it can run Spore perfectly.

 

[Hitman 43]

*SNIP*

This is one of the reasons why I dislike PC gaming.

 

[Pseudonym2]

You're playing on a laptop man, they aren't the best choice for PC gaming...
And what exactly is the point of this thread, is this just you complaining?

My problem isn't that the games have hardware problems. I can't even start to run most of them. My point is that the computer game industry should rethink its approach. If games are much easier to run on consuls, the computer game publishers will have to do something to keep its fans.

 

[Contun]

You're playing on a laptop man, they aren't the best choice for PC gaming...
And what exactly is the point of this thread, is this just you complaining?

My problem isn't that the games have hardware problems. I can't even start to run most of them. My point is that the computer game industry should rethink its approach. If games are much easier to run on consuls, the computer game publishers will have to do something to keep its fans.

Maybe it's just me, but I have know problem starting up games and I see as it a simple task...

 

[Maze1125]

If games are much easier to run on consuls, the computer game publishers will have to do something to keep its fans.

People have been saying that for years, yet the PC gaming scene still goes strong.

Some people like simplicity, and those people will choose consoles.
Some people like customisation, and those people will choose PCs.

Neither market is going to die out just because some people don't like the other one.

 

[Vordark]

Most of the games I actually want to play are available on the 360. Fallout 3, Rock Band, Bioshock, Saint's Row 2 and Left 4 Dead being some examples. Still, I have a gaming PC because the rare times I buy a computer game it's soooooo worth having a good system. The Total War series alone has given me insane amounts of the fun times. I also used to play a few MMOs, which are pretty much PC exclusives, but those days are behind me now.

Note that I wrote "gaming PC", though. Unless all you are going to do is play solitaire, you need good hardware. And I'm not talking about "good for a laptop" hardware. Even the older games (Painkiller being a great example from 2004) can be problems if you don't have a decent gaming rig.

 

[The Madman]

I've had nothing but good experience with Direct2Drive, indeed the one time I had any trouble I received a response almost immediately after sending an email to customer support and soon had everything running perfectly, no worries.

Sounds to me like you and computers just don't get along. Have you been visiting many circus lately? Did you annoy any ancient looking fortune tellers who might have cursed you to be doomed to forever miss out on PC gaming? Or maybe you're unknowingly a super-hero, you know, like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable just your power is to make computers not work. Kinda a crappy power, but still beats Aquaman I guess, so good on ya.

Oh well, your loss. One of my favorite elements of PC gaming is that while it might occasionally take some effort, you *can* play any older game on any computer. Right now I'm playing through Heroes of Might and Magic 3 which I picked up from gog.com for example, and it's fantastic. Can't do that with consoles however you're limited to the current generation and perhaps one generation back if you're lucky and Sony/Microsoft/Whoever make it work properly... and even then sometimes they charge for the classics. On PC as long as you still own em and are willing to take some time to figure it out, it'll work.

 

[Captain_Caveman]

I just got a new laptop and I wanted to start playing computer games again. Now I remembered why I stopped.

These were the games I got.

Max Payne 2: worked fine.

King Kong: Successfully installed. I tried to play it but I couldn't convince it that I had administrator privileges for the only profile on my laptop.

Painkiller: I put the first cd in but my laptop refused to read it even though I had auto run. I went to my computer but the laptop couldn't read the CD. All it did was whir a lot.

Next I went to Direct2Drive and tried to take advantage of their sale. They wouldn't accept my credit card and I had to start a PayPal account. Also their customer service doesn't work.

Manhunt: loaded just fine but when I tried to play it, it immediately shut down due to DEP problems. I tried to turn the DEP program off for Manhunt (which requires administrator privileges) but Manhunt needs the DEP program on to work.

Max Payne 1: Won't download. Customer service doesn't work. When I try to download it, a message in Firefox pops up but then disappears before it loads. Nothing shows up in my temp files.


Then I gave up and played Mass Effect for the 360. I put the disk in and turned the X-box on and the game worked. I guess I'm not good enough with computers to be able to run more a fifth of my games.



Note: this leaves out a lot of other things I had to go through.
Edit: My laptop is very good for a laptop and I'm playing slightly older games on purpose. Only one of them is current generation.

you can solve almost all of those problems by following these steps

do a full format/reinstall of windows (make sure you have your chipeset/network (LAN) drivers on disk first)
download the newest drivers for all your hardware.
install them in the following order
chipset, network/LAN, Windows updates, graphics, sound

then install your games. should work 99.99999999999% of the time.