problem with pc gaming.

i was talking to some friends recently about the current state of pc gaming and we all agreed on one thing. the biggest thing that hurts gamers and stops more people from taking it more seriously is the constant upgrade battle. seems every few months a new game comes along and as impressive as it is it crushes current hardware, and in some cases it takes a year or two before the hardware to play the game the way it's intended is affordable for the masses. i think it cripples the pc gaming market that the most desired games are unplayable for so many and that instead of always pushing the envelope they should cut back a little so that a game will run stably at desirable resolutions on current hardware. for example TES: oblivion is nearly 4 years old and the game still doesn't run well on a pc the average user will pick up at a big box retailer without a graphics upgrade, am i the only one that finds this a bit ridiculous? i'm just waiting for the next big game to come along and force me back into an upgrade path i completed only a few months ago with top of the line components.

Its sloppy coding - my 4890 maxes out Oblivion even though the FPS vary from 35-70. As for AA its the engine. As for upgrades, games are for gamers, not weak mid range cards. Also, hardware specs are nothing today due to cross-platform games. The 360 and PS3's hardware are set, and the quality of PC games show up the limitations. Dead Space, Resident Evil 5, etc no issues.

i do game a lot, more on my pc actually then on any of my consoles, i just think that most non gamers see it as either to expensive or just don' understand why their brand new computer can't play a certain game, it's the pc gaming markets biggest hurdle.

valtonray said:

i do game a lot, more on my pc actually then on any of my consoles, i just think that most non gamers see it as either to expensive or just don' understand why their brand new computer can't play a certain game, it's the pc gaming markets biggest hurdle.

Understand, but its the users fault - you want to play games, you need knowledge, otherwise buy a boring console.

Exactly. If they stuck gaming capable video cards in every budget pc, they wouldn't be budget pc's. A lot of people use computers mainly for facebook and email, and that $350 walmart budget pc will do the job. They can't expect it to play Modern Warfare 2. I don't think most people do, I don't really see a problem with PC gaming, aside from buggy console ports.

I agree. But I mean, with my Dual action from logitech, and my system, I'd much rather have a good PC than a whole bunch of consoles, when I PC can do so much more. The only thing I'd change is the online servers with Xbox and ps3, to work on PC. :P

i understand that the problem is that the buyer doesn't have the knowledge but it seems like every few days i'm having to explain to someone why a system they just bought won't play some game unless they go out and spend another $200 or so dollars to upgrade it. the number one turn off to pc gaming is the knowledge and cost required to be able to play the latest games. and certainly even a budget desktop with integrated graphics should be able to handle a game 2+ years old at least on medium settings.

I think your in a dream world. A PC is not by default a Gaming PC. If everyone was ok with only playing farmville then yeah, we wouldn't need gaming hardware. Computers have so many different uses though you can't expect them to just play every game without the proper hardware... They are versatile. Minimum Requirements are not new, they've been listed on games forever... Sure non-computer-savvy folk may not know what they say, but that's why they have you as a friend.

The guy who just wants to check his email and browse ebay, why would he want to have to pay more for a computer just so that it doesn't confuse your friend who wants to play Modern Warfare 2 on a netbook? If we made all computers capable, then everyone would have to pay for it...

I was reading a post by a games developer from a big company on a forum about why madden wasnt coming to the pc anymore and he was saying that the big games companies don't think its cost effective to rewrite games for the pc anymore. Due to all the different possible combinations of hardware the game will have to run on they have to spend a lot more time and money working on the pc version than xbox/360/wii etc. He said the two options they have are to not do a pc version or release a version that is still buggy because they cant afford the time and money to carry on testing. He also said that rather than admit this the game companies blame pc piracy for not releasing certain games on pc.

I sure game developers have always had to spend more on making pc version compared to console ones but now its starting to eat into their profit margins too much so they have started to cut back on pc funding now. Its a real shame to see some of these game franchises that started on pc and only survived because of pc gamers started to ignore the pc completely or just make a crappy pc port as an afterthought.

I see this entire debate in a different light than most I suppose.

I agree, some is simply sloppy coding, but I would like to see more games come out that will actually use the power a gaming PC is capable of.

GPU makers are constantly improving thier cards. ATI has the 5K series now, Nvidia is following up with thier next gen cards to better compete in the market ...

But IMO, its pointless in a sense.

What I mean, is I have a 1GB 4890. Theres not a game out atm, or in the near future this card can't handle with ease. Even at high res/settings
So why upgrade? (Other than DX11 which really isnt used much at this point)

In the meantime, game developers are constantly trying to make games that run most every machine out there and not truly taking advantage of what our gaming PCs are actually capable of.

Because of this, you really do not need a high end card for PC gaming.
For the most part, a 3K series ATI card or nvidia equivalent will run most any game out quite well, and are not that expensive. Less than $100

I would really like to see the game devs start targeting more current hardware TBH.
If you want to game on your PC, just set it up for gaming.

others may disagree, but thats my take.