PC Building: Turning a page?

[JM Aggie08]

20's here, and have no interest in building anymore

It's sad really...PC building was always one of my passions, and now that I have plenty of money for it, I can no longer justify building.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Every time I even turn on my xbox there's a boat load of updates so I just end up turning it off.

This happens every blasted time I actually have a couple hours to kill on an MMO. (Log in, and BLAM there's a 10GBs of patch to download because I haven't played since the last major patch came out.)

Now I just log in my MMO patchers and Steam client every few days, just so I'm patched and can actually play when I want to. Very, very annoying.

 

[exdeath]

I think he meant GRAPHICS are more complex than ever.

The other stuff, you know story and game play itself and all those worthless things, has never been more watered down.


Its all about instant action instant gratification and something blowing up 3 seconds into the game.

I die inside every time I see a kid these days all ADHD waiting for a dialogue or cut scene to end completely not pushing attention, complaining that it's boring, smashing buttons hoping to skip it, wanting to start shooting things immediately.

 

[Eureka]

Last PC games I've played and enjoyed for 100+ hours were Borderlands and Fallout 3 BTW. And even then they are compromises for me because they are both still FPS at their core. That's the root of the problem. Even when companies do attempt to innovate, they still dont stray too far from the safe and easy FPS template.

You can't play solitaire these days without it being behind a FPS hud.

You picked 2 FPSes and complain they're FPSes. ???

I think he meant GRAPHICS are more complex than ever.

The other stuff, you know story and game play itself and all those worthless things, has never been more watered down.

List me all those games that you played that were great in the 90/early2000s and had incredible, immersive stories and vast gameplay options?

Games are far, far less complex than they've ever been.

When you have games from 10+ years ago that used a mouse and/or joystick PLUS a keyboard where many, if not all, of the keys "did something", you can't argue these games are less complex than today.

Almost all new games can be used with an Xbox controller or just a mouse.

"Old" games had manuals that you had to have and not just for copy protection. A classic example is any of the great simulators: Gunship, Falcon series, etc.

And it wasn't just the simulators that were more complex.

Yes, games have changed but not necessarily for the better.

Coding-wise, games are more complex...gameplay, not so much.

What games, besides simulators, are actually less complex now than they were before?

Lots of controls doesn't necessarily mean complexity, and neither does having lots of variables in a game. Yeah, ye old JRPGs had billions of outcomes, but it's basically a story book with a lot of jump-to pages and formulas. They could change the outcome a million times because the complexity of the game was relatively low. I'd take a smaller, better-presented done story than a big story but with less game complexity.

I do miss flight sims, but quite honestly, they aren't profitable at all. You still have to make games that are realistically profitable. And requiring your gamers to dig through a textbook? It worked fine when everyone who played PC games was an enthusiast and there was a lot less to do on the computer.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I've got a decent 24" IPS display. I don't need a second one.

I have a rather new (JAN 2012) FreeNAS server with 4TB in ZFS2, so that need is taken care of.

I think my desire now is towards a HTPC/DVR/CAPS build.

 

[Red Storm]

I went from building custom high end rigs to just buying a high end gamer laptop. I'm hoping discrete plug in video cards become a reality by the time I buy my next system, so I can go slim laptop.

 

[Eureka]

I went from building custom high end rigs to just buying a high end gamer laptop. I'm hoping discrete plug in video cards become a reality by the time I buy my next system, so I can go slim laptop.

It's a reality now. Buy Alienware or Clevo, and you have standard MXM modules that you can get.

Buy ASUS, and a few other brands I can't think of, and you still have MXM modules, but they're not standardized.

 

[crashtestdummy]

20's here, and have no interest in building anymore

It's sad really...PC building was always one of my passions, and now that I have plenty of money for it, I can no longer justify building.

Yup. I did a lot of building as a teenager. It's been 8 years since I last built a computer for myself (I've rebuilt a couple for work here and there). I more or less stopped gaming when I got to college. I've moved to board/card games because there's more social involvement. I value portability much more now, and my next computer will probably be an ultrabook or the like.

If I do build again, it'll probably be an HTPC, not a gaming computer.

 

[Red Storm]

It's a reality now. Buy Alienware or Clevo, and you have standard MXM modules that you can get.

Buy ASUS, and a few other brands I can't think of, and you still have MXM modules, but they're not standardized.

What? Link me!

 

[JM Aggie08]

NM.

 

[Eureka]

Xoticpc and Sager sell rebranded Clevo chassis laptops.

As for finding MXM modules, that's still the hard part.

This website has some:
http://www.mxm-upgrade.com/Store_30.html

But you're best off looking at forums dedicated for laptop gaming or looking on ebay. But in theory, if you had the money, you could buy the basic Clevo chassis, find a 7970M or 680M modules, and plug it in.

It's niche so you won't find supply like you do in desktop parts. And they are more expensive for less performance. But the options are there for the laptop enthusiast.

Or are you thinking of something else still?

 

[Red Storm]

Oh. I meant like plug in via Thunderbolt so that I could have my super thin ultrabook but plug in an external video card for gaming when needed. That's cool though.

 

[exdeath]

You picked 2 FPSes and complain they're FPSes. ???



List me all those games that you played that were great in the 90/early2000s and had incredible, immersive stories and vast gameplay options?

Here's a couple:

PC (shooters even):

System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Unreal Tournament 2004

Console 90s:

Final Fantasy III
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana
Ocarina of Time
Super Metroid

Console 2000s:

Metroid Prime
Xenosaga
Kingdom Hearts

Also being that PC games are being dumbed down to cross platform builds designed primarily for consoles is probably the reason most in this thread dont care about building PCs anymore. $5000 PC + DRM hastles to play the exact same game that your 10 year old game console has, often with exclusive features?

These days I won't even touch a shooter unless it has a single player experience on par with SS2 or original Deus Ex (hence Borderlands, Fallout, Bioshock, etc I will play)

 

[Eureka]

Oh. I meant like plug in via Thunderbolt so that I could have my super thin ultrabook but plug in an external video card for gaming when needed. That's cool though.

Whoops, when you said discrete I thought you meant like desktop discrete. But worry not, the future is here!

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/turbobox-na255a-pci-express,3430.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/pci-express-graphics-thunderbolt,3263.html

The technology looks like it works amazing well. The price point... well that's still in the future, unfortunately.

 

[Eureka]

Here's a couple:

PC (shooters even):

System Shock 2
Deus Ex
Unreal Tournament 2004

Console 90s:

Final Fantasy III
Chrono Trigger
Secret of Mana
Ocarina of Time
Super Metroid

Console 2000s:

Metroid Prime
Xenosaga
Kingdom Hearts

Also being that PC games are being dumbed down to cross platform builds designed primarily for consoles is probably the reason most in this thread dont care about building PCs anymore. $5000 PC + DRM hastles to play the exact same game that your 10 year old game console has, often with exclusive features?

I don't know about you, but I've replayed some of those games you've listed recently, and everything looks better in hindsight. For one thing, Ocarina of Time was great as a kid, but playing games now, I believe we've made some positive changes. Tomb Raider and AC, for example, has great environmental interaction, long stories, and in the case for AC, many hours of gameplay. Zelda took a while but it was a repetitive back and forth game. Go to the Forest, look for the item, go to the city, do the action, go back to the forest, look for the another item.

You're also talking about taking the best game across two decades, and comparing them with the drivel that comes out now. There were plenty of bad games, and a lot of series rehashes (remember the six billion street fighters or mortal kombats?)

And there are still games that will push PC to the limit. Valve and Crytek are two developers which firmly believe in innovation.

 

[z1ggy]

I feel you OP. Once "real life" hits you- House, family, etc. there just isn't enough time to play games. And for most people, money can be better invested or spent than dumping it into having the latest and greatest hardware.

Most games I play run fine on my current set up on high qual. I don't really care if I can max out on ultra super high settings with 4x AA and all that crap.

 

[Ketchup]

I still love PC building, but do it much less often than I used to. I see a few reasons for this:
1. I'm 33. Three youngsters are plenty of "game" for me now.
2. Hardware is slowing down it's pace. My last rig was a Core 2 Quad, and it rarely let me down. There are a few things that run better for me on the i5 (video encoding for one) and gameplay is a little better at times when I do game, but most of the time I can't tell much of a difference.
3. Software is slowing it's pace. For example, I really enjoyed the look and the gameplay of Portal 2, but it was hardly stressing my system. Been playing Need for Speed games since the inception, but the latest 3 show very little difference in image quality.

 

[Squisher]

My last rig I built was built around the notion of dead silence. Fanless power supply, fanless video card, Huge heat pipe heat sink on the CPU with a 120mm fan that turns at 200 rpm, I still need a solid state drive though.

 

[exdeath]

You're also talking about taking the best game across two decades, and comparing them with the drivel that comes out now. There were plenty of bad games, and a lot of series rehashes (remember the six billion street fighters or mortal kombats?)

And that's my problem... All the games I ever played which back then were fairly common releases just happened to be regarded now as some of the best games ever made, and those are the shoes yearning to be filled today.

 

[sm625]

once i stopped caring about gaming on pc (which was nearly a decade ago) my upgrade cycle was much shorter.

This statement does not compute. One would expect your upgrade cycle to be longer if not gaming.

 

[Sleepingforest]

And that's my problem... All the games I ever played which back then were fairly common releases just happened to be regarded now as some of the best games ever made, and those are the shoes yearning to be filled today.

That's not what he's saying. He's saying that you managed to name about ten games across a decade and a half--hundreds of games, even thousands, were released in that time period. That's not even one good game a year, or even one in 100. The shoes that need to be filled are the same size as ever.

 

[exdeath]

That's not what he's saying. He's saying that you managed to name about ten games across a decade and a half--hundreds of games, even thousands, were released in that time period. That's not even one good game a year, or even one in 100. The shoes that need to be filled are the same size as ever.

I have three bookshelves floor to ceiling packed with games from NES to PS3. I'm at work playing on the internet on my phone when I can, not going to list 1000 games off here.

I just gave some classic examples that came to mind. Its not an complete list.

 

[Sleepingforest]

Right, but there are FAR more mediocre games produced than excellent AAA games, and that's always been true. There is only a "generation defining" game once a generation--that's what it means.

Developers have to change their their games to suit the demographic as well. The PC and console market have grown as they become more affordable and thus the market expands. So you do see more things that you don't like, because you are no longer the primary demographic. I suppose you are right, in a way. Games are no longer designed specifically for the older gaming generation--they're meant for a restless public within minimal skill and unwilling to put in a time investment learning, but who still want to feel accomplishment.

I wouldn't say that games are bad. If they were really so bad that people (note: not you, but people) puke or something, they wouldn't sell. They clearly appeal to someone, it's just no longer you or many of the reviewers, who grew up in an earlier gaming generation.

 

[escrow4]

OP is correct. Over the past 2 or 3 yrs especially, all the interesting games seem to have been replaced by endless generic shooters and horrific DLC and way too short single player campaigns. Take this year - Aliens vs Predator was a joke, Crysis 3 was way too short for full price, and Bioshock Infinite (despite the spastic storyline and shortish 15hr gameplay) was pretty good. Last year only ME3 and Far Cry 3 stand out for me, along with maybe Spec Ops the Line.

Good news is that next gen consoles at least have the potential to bring something new to the table. I'm still waiting for something similar to the B grade PS2 games - Manhunt, Bloodrayne, Suffering, State of Emergency etc. Back when games were actually fun and different, not generic. For this month, Dead Island: Riptide is looking good.

 

[UglyCasanova]

I built mine about a year ago and I hope to get another 4 or so out of it. I used to play games but they just don't hold my interest anymore. Part of getting older.