PC Gaming: What's left to look forward to?

[Skrips]

/ranton

For quite a while now people have been saying that PC gaming is dead and gone like last week. We, however, have been clinging vainly to the glory days when PC gaming was awsome, and we hope those days will come back with a vengence. But we all know the truth even if we don't want to admit it:

PC gaming is at an all time new low.

Lets examine, for just a moment, the decline and downfall leading to the current round of disappointments. Let us go back to a magical time, a time full of counter terrorists and rail guns. A time where we lanned and shot each other in the face, where rocket jumping and crowbars ruled the day, and diablo just wouldn't stay dead. Those were fun times, eh? The games were great, the customizability was fantastic, not to mention the ability to mod almost anything your heart could desire. Then comes the evolution, and things got worse.

I remember the first time i played Battlefield. I could not believe how bad the hit detection was! Doom had better hit detection. And guess what? That was only the beginning of the problem. Somewhere along the line they decided that dynamic crosshairs and fatigue bars were a fun idea. Ever see videos of a navy seal running in a semi crouch with an M4A3 firing 3 round bursts at 100+ yards with point accuracy? If they can do it in real life, why can't i do it in a video game?

Then there was the idea of customization. They thought, hmm, players are always modding the games, so lets build in some features and then prevent them from doing anything themselves. I'm sorry, but no. The whole point of modding is that there will always be some one who thinks of stuff that you have not thought of. We wouldnt have rocket arena or counter strike without modding! And those are just two of the more famous ones, there are many, many more.

And lets talk about depth. Not all games need an rpg element. What happened to keeping the genres seperate? Why can't my fps or racing game be just an fps or a racing game? Hell, im a nerd, i admit it. I have a collection of 20 sided dice and character sheets and reference books. But when i don't want to crunch numbers and min-max i shouldn't have to! Can't we just leave well enough alone?

And then came EA's rise to power. And i do mean rise to power, as they now control (read here as ruin) everything that is made today. In fact, i expect they will send a hit team after me for saying that. But in all seriousness, they have probably done more to ruin PC gaming that anyone else. Their DRM rules, their underhanded methods for preventing you from installing your game more than 3 times (you all remember what that!), not to mention the rumors of root kit bugs involved in the game code. Lets not forget about Steam, either. Remember when Steam first came out, and the outcry from the community when they realized there was no "offline mode" for the games they bought? Oh how we never learned, becuase now everyone has a launch platform for their games.

Where will it end?

And now, currently, the games we have all been waiting for are coming out. And we are not happy. BF3 has terrible everything, not to mention the strictest DRM ever, and the need of two launch platforms (correct me if i am wrong). Then there is D3, also with a terrible DRM AND it requires you to be online always, even for single player. Then there is RAGE, the amazingly collosal waste of time and money. More console ports, thanks everyone for your hard work! Or should i say lack of interest instead of hard work? And this perfectly mirrors this years othe big waste of time: Crysis 2. I remember a time when the first Crysis came out, and it was amazingly beautiful even if there wasn't a computer on the planet that could run it. I also remember a time when it couldn't be run at anything close to full settings, becuase even with as long as it has been since it's release, it still cannot be run at max!

One big let down after another, one more time of being lied to, one more time of being cheated.

At this point i wonder if PC gaming is worth saving. Do they deserve our money? Do they deserve our time or our fanfare? I would suspect that they do not. But that is my own opinion, others may have theirs. Or maybe im just a bitter thirty year old gaming nerd who is misty eyed while remembering how things used to be "way back when" . Maybe i am just going to have to accept that times are changing, and that this is the way the world of PC gaming is going to be from here on out. DRMs, constant internet connection, lying snd cheating, cheap console porting, and launch platforms: The wave of the future?

Regardless, i do not have to like it, and i will tell you right now that i do not. But my original question, and the point for this thread, remains very pertinent:

What's left to look forward to?

/rantoff

[Kanabanoid]

eh... i recall reading "some where, don't know how true it is" that MS is doing away with the XBOX and moving over to the PC gaming platform. So... if that happens there is going to be an enormous chunk taken out of the console's

[Ket]

MS give up XBOX? Utter crap, it'll never happen. As for state of PC games.. I ranted myself a few days back. At the very least devs doing ports can get the damn controls right and give PC gamers proper textures.

[Skrips]

MS give up XBOX? Utter crap, it'll never happen. As for state of PC games.. I ranted myself a few days back. At the very least devs doing ports can get the damn controls right and give PC gamers proper textures.

Apparently they cant. But this is more than a rant. Im genuinely asking a question and id like to get a discussion going. Whats left to look forward to?

[Ket]

I can't think of a sungle game until march, when ME3 comes out. It'll be a console port obviously, the graphics will almost be laughable (we've all seen the "plastic foliage") but at least the game should be a epic finale.

[Skrips]

There NO finales anymore! Name a single game any of us are looking forward that ISNT a sequal! You cant becuase everything is a sequal now. Just another thing to be disappointed about.

[Ket]

Mass Effect isn't a sequel type of game. Each game has progressed the story from the game that come before it, with every decision you make in the game having a impact not only on that game, but the game that comes after it. eg; Did you let Kaidan or Ashley die in ME1? Whoever snuffed it won't be in any of the other games because your gamesaves can be carried over. What about the big...thing at the end of ME2? Did you blow the holy hell out of it or salvage it to use against the Reapers?). ME3 will finish the story and wrap things up. I rarely give so much praise to a game, but ME games are very good (not so much ME2).

[Frontl1ne]

Firefall is looking good. I also hear Blizzard is working on a new franchise. So is Respawn Entertainment (previously Infinity Ward) and Bungie.

BF3 is awesome. Yeah it sucks being on Origin and all, but the game is awesome.

[Frag Maniac]

Don't know where you got that bit about MS giving up Xbox for PC, because everything they've done gaming wise has been just the opposite, especially their recently adopting Nintendo's motion sensing games "Anyone can play" concept ala Kinect. Sony is in on the idea too with Move.

You start out with some indication you're aware of the sad plight of PC gaming, only to waffle back and forth with this baseless talk of MS ditching the console platform, which makes it look like you're clinging to false hope. Then you say you just want to stimulate discussion on what we can look forward to (if anything) on the PC platform.

Well, sorry, but you'll have to do better than that to give people incentive to talk optimistically about PC gaming, because all that talk does it make it look all the more grim and obvious that part of the problem is gaming customers don't stay in tune with what's going on, and many of them that don't assume what big gaming brands are telling them is the way of the future, and that way if you haven't noticed their spiel is the console and portable platforms.

You just can't get away from the fact that the whole gaming industry now is driven by the greed of big corporations, not the creativity of developing teams like it used to be. I used to think the big PC hardware manufactures have a lot of clout and could keep PC gaming strong. I mean look at all the high end dedicated GPUs that are made that need customers to use them in their gaming rigs.

The fact is though, even the GPU manufacturers have somewhat strayed from enthusiast PC gaming. First ATI with their focus on budget hardware, then Nvidia with their GPUs made more for the HPC industry than gaming. These are signs that the GPU manufacturers are preparing to retool for a possible scenario where consoles, portables, and small PCs with graphics integrated CPUs will be the bulk of what people game on.

MS has announced W8 as being an OS that's primarily a portable driven concept. Nowhere in that seminar did they mention enthusiast gaming support. They only talked of simple motion sensing tilt support like these Wii clone games use. I'm not sure you're fully aware of how bleak the future of high end PC gaming looks, especially concerning MS' part, or rather LACK of taking part in it.

[Skrips]

Frag Maniac, despite your flaming post, i still got you into the discussion

Also, it wasnt me who mentioned MS dropping xbox. They wont, and that part of the problem.

Keep going! I want this to be a real, unbiased, hold-nothing-back examination of the industry and where it is heading. Ok GO!

[drnip]

Only thing I have seen about XBox is the ability to play the games on Windows 8.

[little_scrapper]

As with everything in life, you have to go where the money is. Period. PC game piracy has ruined the PC gaming industry. This is why devs produce games for consoles.... until recently the piracy on consoles was much less prominent. Therefor the profit was much better on consoles.

Now that console piracy is catching up with PC piracy, i see more devs coming back to the PC and much MUCH more stringint DRM in our future.

[InCredible]

As with everything in life, you have to go where the money is. Period. PC game piracy has ruined the PC gaming industry. This is why devs produce games for consoles.... until recently the piracy on consoles was much less prominent. Therefor the profit was much better on consoles.

Now that console piracy is catching up with PC piracy, i see more devs coming back to the PC and much MUCH more stringint DRM in our future.

i believe this is a scapegoat and not true at all. Pc gamers spend money on games theres a difference though and its not piracy thats ruining it.
If a game is good and the person who wants it has the money for it, they will buy it period. The people who pirate either A want to try the game out before wasting $60 on a ty game or they were never going to purchase it in the first place. Me personally i test a game before i buy it if its good i support it or if i think ill get my money worth ill buy it. Portal for instance, played it LOVED it..supported it ....played Crysis 2 realized it was a piece of crap without dx11 to boot didnt buy it..

the difference between the two is consoles get the attention when it comes to building the game(like the interview with Kotaku shows) then we pc gamers get a crappy console port..who seriously wants to support that with their hard earned money? i wont thats for sure. On top of that the fan base for consoles are a lot higher which obviously equals more sales..Piracy is an issue but a minor one when it comes to pc gaming and why its not on top and it will never be on top is most "gamers" arent serious about it they just mess around with friends or waste time etc...ive always labeled console gamers as "simple" gamers and unfortunately thats the majority ..and majority rules

[nksharp]

Tons of decent games coming out. Nvidia even thinks PC gaming will be in stronger numbers than consoles by 2014 if things keep up.

Consoles can only get worse while PC's get better and games are getting better and better ( at the very least graphically).

I'm looking forward to BF3,Skyrim,Diablo 3 and a few others this year and next year.

[Ket]

I forgot about Skyrim, make that 2 games then. TWO.

[Chrono Detector]

Sadly PC gaming has hit a all time low, its a shame that gaming developers have abandoned the PC community and focused on consoles where most of the profits are, and they blame that PC piracy is the reason why they don't make PC games anymore. I miss the old days of PC games that were actually in high quality, all the games I play these days are trash and not even worthy in my book. So far all the games released this year has not impressed me at all. Horrible console ports is one reason.

[Skrips]

Well, there WERE many games i was looking forward to, but anymore i just see the failures before the games even come out:

Diablo 3: always on internet, real money auction house, rediculous DRM crap
BF3: DRM, requireing 2 launch platforms, lack of squad control in game
RAGE: crappy console port, lack of real PC setup options
The Old Republic: WoW clone, EA published, probably will have horrible EULA
Deus Ex Hman Revolution: rappy console port, short game length, lack of content, must buy the content you expected through DLC

And the list goes on and on. Frankly, i wonder if there is anything worth buying anymore. They can make the claims about piracy causing problems, but lets face facts:

1) piracy can never be stopped
2)it was never a problem before
3)if microsoft can deal with it, so can they

They sold out for money and left us high and dry, and thats it. Sure, go where the money is, but if you are going to waste not only developement time but money on a game for multiple platforms, do it right and have the game MADE for multiple platforms! That all i ask!

Well, that and give me a decent EULA, and content, and mechanics that work, and a little thing i like to call FUN! Games used to be entertaining, now they just feel like i purposely went to a used car salesmen and let him talk me into a bad car at a huge price. Which isnt far from truth. They just release the same title over and over again, while making it worse with every itteration.

Just no. I rather go back to playing System Shock 2 and the original Thief...

[Espion]

PlanetSide2 and Firefall

[zanzabar]

what drm dose diablo 3 have, its an online game. in d2 did any1 play off battle net (ive never heard of any1 other than moders (not content used to cheat)/cheaters who did). the whole point of diablo is to party and to have loot, u cannot have offline loot since its all homemakered on non secure and parrying is fail on open as its people hacking into your room and going god mode force pvp griefing every time.

the only way to have d3 was online only as the game play is online only, its not like its uplay, it is like guildwars.

and the real money auction house is something good, there is always a huge market for real money buys and there is no way to deal with it, but this time it blizz is embracing it and they will make mone, it will stop spam and let normal people sell things, there are no loosers. and u can have a non real money auction house, i doubt that everything will be for real money. then it may be illegal to have a real money auctionhouse in alot of places since it will work from random loot drops making it gambling, so it is not launching with the game every ware (IE korea)

[Frag Maniac]

...it wasnt me who mentioned MS dropping xbox.

Noted, I did misplace that comment, I can see why you thought it flamatory. The rest applies though, I get the feeling you're not grasping the fact that there isn't really much to be optimistic about regarding the future of PC gaming. It's why many of us are reluctant to spend much on hardware for it anymore.

[Skrips]

Noted, I did misplace that comment, I can see why you thought it flamatory. The rest applies though, I get the feeling you're not grasping the fact that there isn't really much to be optimistic about regarding the future of PC gaming. It's why many of us are reluctant to spend much on hardware for it anymore.

Exactly the problem. There isnt much to look forward to, and it makes me a little sad. I wonder sometimes if we will see the end of the era? I dont mean that PC games will fade away and no more will be made, just that they will not be good or properly made for PC, just an afterthought.

Sorta sad to think of it that way.

And yes, i have hope for Planetside...the first one was awsome

But can ANYONE trust Sony ever again? Especially with their new "you cant sue us" EULA?

[gFiz]

Am I the only one who played Deus Ex: Revolution?

[N19h7m4r3]

Am I the only one who played Deus Ex: Revolution?

I did aswell.

It was a rather easy game specially on hard. It was fun though.
Although I got almost double the game time out of the Witcher 2.

[m4gg0t]

we PC gamers are getting ed and on by devs. it pisses me off to hell. almost all PC games are console ports and most of the time suck like .

[smpsys]

And what the hell happened to Max Payne 3? Still waiting for some real gameplay video.

I bet it will take forever for the game to be ready. Just like DNF.