PC Gaming is Dead to me. Let me tell you why.

[Red Storm]

The cost of PC gaming is the not the cost of the entire computer system, it's the price of the video card. Computer's are no longer a luxury, you almost have to have one nowadays. The only major difference between a regular PC and a gaming PC is the video card, and you can get very capable cards for under $200.

You're a fool if you think PC gamers see a new game release and go, "Ah well, my system is now useless. Time to buy another!" :roll:

 

[AstroManLuca]

I have had a Radeon HD3850 for a year and I don't intend to replace it anytime soon. Most demanding game I run is Company of Heroes. If I get bad performance in a game, I just turn the settings down a little and it's fine.

 

[EnzoLT]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: EnzoLT

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

Those are all crappy games. Look at the good games.

Fallout 3 is good.
Red Alert 3 is good
The Witcher is liked by some people
World Of Warcraft's new expansion is a good one
COD 5 is ok (but the same game as it has always been)
Mass Effect was good

 

[EnzoLT]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

Those are all crappy games. Look at the good games.

Fallout 3 is good.
Red Alert 3 is good
The Witcher is liked by some people
World Of Warcraft's new expansion is a good one
COD 5 is ok (but the same game as it has always been)
Mass Effect was good

mass effect was good. cod5 is cod4 with a mod. not into WoW but its good (according to my Wow fanatic friend), witcher combat system is a joke. fo3, have yet to try it.

im mostly an fps player so i think you can understand where im coming from.

 

[mooncancook]

my 8800GTS hooked up to my 1080p TV destroys my PS3 in graphic department, and it'll remain that way for... ever.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

Those are all crappy games. Look at the good games.

Fallout 3 is good.
Red Alert 3 is good
The Witcher is liked by some people
World Of Warcraft's new expansion is a good one
COD 5 is ok (but the same game as it has always been)
Mass Effect was good

What?? Red alert 3 was a pile of garbage. GTA IV was awesome, left 4 dead is good fun, dead space was a pretty decent game too...

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

Those are all crappy games. Look at the good games.

Fallout 3 is good.
Red Alert 3 is good
The Witcher is liked by some people
World Of Warcraft's new expansion is a good one
COD 5 is ok (but the same game as it has always been)
Mass Effect was good

Fallout 3 was a big dissapointment
WOW well it's WOW

That's all I got

 

[Eeezee]

The life span for graphics cards if you want to be at the cutting edge has been 3 months or less for over a decade.

I haven't built a new computer in 2 years (which I built for $1k at the time) and I can still run new games at medium to high quality settings. If you're willing to not crank up every graphical setting to the maximum, graphics card lifetimes have actually been increasing: graphics quality in games have been increasing at a slower rate than in past years

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: EnzoLT

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: EnzoLT
for me, its not the hardware, its the software. where are the games?~?!?!?

Uh the store?

uhhh ok..........let me spoon feed it to you. where are the better quality games? most of the games nowadays arent the same as it was 3-4 years ago. i had very high hopes for far cry 2 but that sucked....gta iv, disappointment.....left 4 dead, $50 really??! not even close......dead space, horrible controls ftw?.....

Isn't L4D $35 right now? Furthermore, it was worth every penny at $50.

Fallout 3 was awesome.

Mass Effect was awesome

Red Alert 3 was only so-so

I know it has gotten mixed reviews, but I love the Penny Arcade games

The Witcher was awesome

Worse yet, GTA IV was a console port.

I like the PC because it gets all of the good 360 titles and many of the good PS3 titles as well. And gaming with a mouse+keyboard just feels better to me.

 

[GundamSonicZeroX]

Shweet, shweet Jebus. Back when the 79/800GTX was the shit, ATers were complaining that it had been 14 months and no new advancements. Now that things are picking up, ATers are bitching about them being released too fast.

You make it sound like if you don't have three GTX280s cooled by nitrogen with a jiggawatt powersupply, you're not an enthusiast.

enthusiast - a person who is filled with enthusiasm for some principle, pursuit, etc

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: GundamSonicZeroX
Shweet, shweet Jebus. Back when the 79/800GTX was the shit, ATers were complaining that it had been 14 months and no new advancements. Now that things are picking up, ATers are bitching about them being released too fast.

You make it sound like if you don't have three GTX280s cooled by nitrogen with a jiggawatt powersupply, you're not an enthusiast.

enthusiast - a person who is filled with enthusiasm for some principle, pursuit, etc

That's no longer enthusiasm, that's dick waving. Seriously, the GPU lifespan for a NORMAL enthusiast is much longer than 3 months.

 

[Capt Caveman]

OP - why do you need to upgrade when your current hardware is sufficient? I'm still using a single 8800GT at 1920x1200.

 

[SoulAssassin]

Console gaming needs a widely supported keyboard/mouse solution for first person shooters before it will be my primary gaming platform.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
Console gaming needs a widely supported keyboard/mouse solution for first person shooters before it will be my primary gaming platform.

Standard keyboard and mouse will not work for most situations IMHO.

They need to add a air mouse (with huge & fine sensitivity adjustment on the fly) and a one handed keyboard you can place on your thigh. Some sort of pressure pad you stand on to control movement would be nice as well when used with the air mouse.

 

[Eeezee]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy

Originally posted by: SoulAssassin
Console gaming needs a widely supported keyboard/mouse solution for first person shooters before it will be my primary gaming platform.

Standard keyboard and mouse will not work for most situations IMHO.

They need to add a air mouse (with huge & fine sensitivity adjustment on the fly) and a one handed keyboard you can place on your thigh. Some sort of pressure pad you stand on to control movement would be nice as well when used with the air mouse.

What's wrong with just using the couch as a mouse pad? This works for me and many other users.

There's nothing more satisfying than having a desktop connected to your living room HDTV

 

[4537256]

having a rig like this, theres no way i'm avoiding gaming on the pc, but if couldnt afford this i'd definitly stick with console, its either high end or no end for me cause for the price a PS3 is pretty darn close to a good PC considering the price ratio.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7526/88095345xy1.jpg

 

[Wheezer]

Originally posted by: 4537256
having a rig like this, theres no way i'm avoiding gaming on the pc, but if couldnt afford this i'd definitly stick with console, its either high end or no end for me cause for the price a PS3 is pretty darn close to a good PC considering the price ratio.
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/7526/88095345xy1.jpg

I like the fireplace...it ads a cozy warm touch

 

[DaveSimmons]

The PS3 and 360 have 2005 video cards and CPUs, so if you can't stand using a 3-month-old video card you'd better just stop playing games altogether.

I only upgraded last July (after 2 years) because I could afford the $750 and I wanted to play Mass Effect and Fallout 3 at 1600x1200. This upgrade should last me at least another year or more.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Posts like this are pretty useless, this isn't anything new, and if anything, it's gotten a lot better in the last half a decade. With ATI/AMD and Nvidia at least other's throat on competitive level, prices have plummeted on hardware that would have easily been 3-4x what it is now half a decade ago. I just picked up a GTX260 for $160 at newegg a few months ago, and I just picked up a q300 quad core processor for $180 at Microcenter last week. Not to mention the 8GB of DDR2 I got for $80 last month as well. At this point, with some smart shopping, you can build a pretty uber PC for less than the price of a PS3 160GB model.

Also, I never buy a new videocard more than once every 18 months, and it's usually closer to 2 years. You can get Xbox 360 level graphics out of a most Geforce 8x00 series based cards, and can be found for $100 or less. Yes, if you're looking to run Crysis Warhead on a 24" LCD at 1920, that's not going to for you too well, but most PC gamers run at 1280x1024 or less on a 17" or less monitor.

Hardcore gaming isn't about how many polys or shaders you're pushing on the screen IMO, it's about the game as an overall experience, the level of control and community that clans and systems like Steam encourage, and being able to Alt-Tab from Left4Dead over to IRC to talk to the guys you're playing with or invite others from the channels you hang out in, or watch for e-mails at the same time, yes, you could sit a laptop beside you on the couch and do that, but that, IMO, is even more uncomfortable than sitting at a desk gaming.

PC gaming is definitely taking it's hits, whether it's for piracy or low sales or whatever, but in my mind, PC gaming is still the best way to harvest a feeling of community, not to mention PC gamers still get most of the great free content from the user community, so while games like Left4Dead and TF2 might eventually get Valve's own DLC, TF2 already has a massive number of awesome user made maps and mods, and Left4Dead will no doubt have the same in 6 months.

 

[cheesehead]

but it is true that people spending $600 on a SINGLE component SHOULD expect quality gaming in return AT LEAST visually.

$600 gets you the graphics power advertised on the back of the box. If the game developers can't do anything more visually appealing with it than what Ye Olde 360 coughs out, what the heck.

Besides, I've never spent more than $90 on a video card.

Originally posted by: Zenoth
How many GOOD quality PC exclusives can the enthusiast enjoy?

Civ 3 (still need to try Civ 4)
Alpha Centauri
Warcraft II
That warhammer FPS game whose name I can't remember
Sins of a Solar Empire
The first two Fallout games
Baldur's Gate II
Planescape
And all them MMORPGS.

Also, quite a lot of software is cheaper on the PC, especially if you wait a bit after release.

 

[LumbergTech]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman
OP - why do you need to upgrade when your current hardware is sufficient? I'm still using a single 8800GT at 1920x1200.

same here..EVGA 8800 GT KO edition

for most games it runs pretty well

i wont lie and say that for some newer stuff it doesnt like to go at that resolution..but a lot of really good games run flawlessly..

like

tf2 @ 16xaa 16xaf 1920x1200 (or any source game)

bioshock runs great at 1920x1200

cod4 runs great @ 1920x1200

a vast majority of popular games run great on an 8800gt still

 

[psihog]

I have my own 2-year EOL schedule, and only a sucker would follow gfx card maker's EOL schedule and buy new card every 3 month.

If PC gfx card market is like console.. the 4850 I bought last October would have been an outdated card in current consoles. Without PC gaming, there won't be next gen cards for the next XBOX or PS..

 

[4537256]

Originally posted by: Krakn3Dfx

PC gaming is definitely taking it's hits, whether it's for piracy or low sales or whatever, but in my mind, PC gaming is still the best way to harvest a feeling of community, not to mention PC gamers still get most of the great free content from the user community, so while games like Left4Dead and TF2 might eventually get Valve's own DLC, TF2 already has a massive number of awesome user made maps and mods, and Left4Dead will no doubt have the same in 6 months.

i agree, however if i was limited to just Valve as far as community, i'd be bored and playing console instead. Too many of the high budget games go to console first and get the most attention while PC gamers get stuck with poor performance from the best hardware, plus constant maintainance of OS and drivers, waiting for patches. lack of demo's and inability to rent titles is partly why the pirate community is so vast.
then theres control, games like GTA4 with kb/mouse kinda suck by comparison, i had to buy a 360 gamepad to play it correctly only to discover no analogue function for LT/RT but my PS3 version has it..minor but still b.s. overall its just a smoother experience on the console and i spent more time playing gta 4 on ps3 than i am on PC

i noticed with my ps3, i tend to download alot more demos and have more fun with 3rd person titles and racing games than i ever could on PC but i still prefer PC due to mods/graphics and just more versatility in general but PC gaming is heading towards a narrow path and is sad cause it has far more potential than whats being done with it

 

[TehMac]

Originally posted by: Udgnim

Originally posted by: Liberator21Now I read that the life span is approximately 3 MONTHS of those cards. WHAT?

it might be a 3 month lifespan as the top video card, but it's not going to be obsolete in 3 months

Yeah, that's retarded. My x1900xt which I bought almost 3 years ago still runs CoD 4, CoH, etc. flawlessly. That said, my original one died because of overheating, but a quick RMA got that sorted out. And that was more of a mechanical than hardware issue.