I've owned and played games on the PC for a while (and consoles in the way too). My rig is a Dell Dimension 8300 with a P4 processor, 1GB RAM and an ATI Radeon 9800 graphics card; it has been able to run successfully games up until Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Recently, due to my nostalgia and the lack of power in my PC for newer games, I've been turning towards older games. Specifically F.E.A.R., but alas I cannot run the game. Is my computer not powerful enough? No, it's quite the opposite. My graphics card has the latest drivers (available after the launch of F.E.A.R.) and they seem not to be backwards compatible with the game. I've always praised PC gaming due to the durability over time, from Starcraft (1998) to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) my current PC has been able to run this games very well (with Oblivion it was just ok). That's a better lifespan than any console, so PC gaming is a bargain in that respect. But the problem with F.E.A.R. and other games I've been trying out has shed light on the backwards compatibility issue with PC gaming (at least in my experience). I accept the fact that consoles, even the ones with backwards compatibility, aren't as adept as the PC in that area. But I always thought of my PC as a museum of gaming, where anytime in the future I can enjoy old school games without any problems. I'm having doubts now, it's too much hassle sometimes to get an old game up and running if you have the latest drivers, you have roll back drivers and this renders you unable you to play games released after the one you want to play. So, I pose this question: Is backwards compatibility in the PC slowly being a thing of the past (pun not intended)?
