Sadly I see no bright future for PC gaming for a few reasons

- A PC is near worthless in terms of local multiplayer gaming.
LAN parties are a pain in the fucking ass, and feel kinda anti-social with everyone being all closed off behind there computers. Consoles allow easy multiplayer gaming in an open environment, everyone has a controller and sits around one big screen. Sucks for competitive gaming, but the best for just having fun.

- Its hard to develop (efficiently) for PC.
If you were to take a computer from 2005, and run 2008 games on par with 360 performance, you would find it impossible. The reason for this is that with consoles the hardware stays the same for every unit. This allows developers to learn over time all the tricks the console has up its sleeve. Its this efficiency that keeps old consoles (nearly) on par with new PC games. Anyone who has payed GoW2 knows that the graphics for it are ridiculous, they look way out of 360's league, and are definitely up there with the best graphics on PC. The reason a 2005 computer can pull this off is because the unreal 3.5 engine that GoW2 runs on was optimized for 360. As of right now there are no plans to even release the unreal engine 4 on PC.

- Technical know-how
A lot of people I know are scared by computers. They feel like every time they click a button or press a key they pulling a brick out of a jenga tower, just waiting for it to crash. Also because of the above reason, there can be a lot of isolated game errors depending on everything from other unrelated programs running in the background, to faulty drivers, to damaged/unsupported hardware, corrupted files, registry errors etc etc. Not to mention all the optimization techniques required for getting the game to run its best.
A console you just put in a disc and play, keep the disc from getting scratched and if your console fails send it back and get a new one.

- Piracy
This is going to be the stake in PC gaming's heart. I used to do it, and did it for years. Nothing like dodging the "over-priced" $50 cost for a new game.
It's not fair though, and it is stealing. People worked hard to make the game, and not thanking them for their hard work is just being a cunt. It so funny how people so openly bash anti-piracy efforts, how so many stand behinds efforts to show companies that they can steal from them and get away with it. Yea, I fucking hate DRM, and I am 100% against it. But the truth is that companies are doing it to try and protect themselves from pirates. Unfortunately adding DRM increases piracy, and removing it increases piracy, people pirate games because they don't want to pay money, not because they are trying to make an anti-DRM statement.
Also unfortunately because technically knowledgeable people tend to favor PC gaming, most PC gamers know very well how to pirate games. The whole irony of this though is that gaming companies, who have been getting shafted in PC department now for a few years, will simply stop making PC games if this goes on (As noted before, Epic has given PC gamers the finger by not releasing unreal engine 4 on PC). As games become more technologically advanced, the development costs rise proportionately and because of piracy the sales increase only slightly if not dropping. It's like seeing people constantly dine-and-ditch at your favorite restaurant, your the one paying and your the one who is gonna have no favorite place to eat when they go out of business ( And the thieves will have nothing left to steal.) Pay for your games fuckers.

yep, I agree. and it's unfortunate but what can ya do?

the first two and the fact that it is fucking expensive are the reasons why I don't do games on PCs.

Console non-local multiplayer gaming sucks though. You normally have to use some stupid matchmaking shit and hardly fit any players on servers and you have to put up with generally a lot more retards.

However they are not on par. PC does have better quality graphics.

I like the technical side of computers, apart from when it is breaking of course but even then I am actually learning something. Besides it really isn't that hard.

I pirate things sometimes but that doesn't mean I was going to buy them. Most of the games I have bought recently have probably been because I pirated them or their prequels and thought them worth buying.

I do not think PC gaming is going to die. Even if it becomes a smaller industry it will always have something the consoles don't.

PS getting a gaming computer is no more expensive than buying a console (at least until they are old) besides it is so much more useful and most people will have a PC in their home anyway. From there unless you have a real shitter all you need is a new graphics card.

Consoles suck.

While there is any kind of pro gaming league I would say that the future for PC gaming is pretty good.

Can you see all those koreans playing starcraft tourneys on the xbox or ps3? Any kind of FPS being played competitively without a mouse/keyboard?

And how about the most popular game in the world (for better or worse) WoW. Can you see that being played on consoles?

I fucking hate consoles and would never consider gaming on one over a pc.

Consoles suck.

While there is any kind of pro gaming league I would say that the future for PC gaming is pretty good.

Can you see all those koreans playing starcraft tourneys on the xbox or ps3? Any kind of FPS being played competitively without a mouse/keyboard?

And how about the most popular game in the world (for better or worse) WoW. Can you see that being played on consoles?

I fucking hate consoles and would never consider gaming on one over a pc.

Yes PC kicks ass and it is pretty easy its just that it is really fucking annoying because of the way technology is advances these days. They go saying that fucking guitar hero, a simple game, doesnt seem to need much to run, requires dual core 2.4GHz and a minimum of 1GB ram and a good video card.

But as technology is advancing, its hard to keep up with what your computer needs to be able to run games at a bare minimum now. PC gaming kicks the shit out of console gaming, but console gaming is still good. Yea your not gonna deal with fucking retarded 8 year old like you would on xbox live. Thats a total upside, but sometimes making fun of little kids over the internet is fun as hell.

And the only reason I cant see wow being a console game (especially 360) is because microsofts servers suck ass. The only mmo type game is PSU, which isnt that good. I could maybe see PS3 having MMOs just because Sony has experience with MMOs (Sony Online Entertainment [SOE] with like star wars galaxies and stuff.)

yeah maintnence to run an MMO or ANY game on console is at the bare minimum, but when you want to play a game on PC, you need some sort of knowledge as to what to do if drivers need to be updated, or if hardware needs to be updated, and what everything is that you need to run the game decently enough for it not be laggy or load to slow.

FPS's and RTS's will always be better with WASD or mouse

FPS's and RTS's will always be better with WASD or mouse

Bah! You just wait till someone makes a console game like Counterstrike that implements one of these badboys! (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/9f/33/74888bacd7a0031807538110._AA280_.L.jpg) Then we'll see who's laughing.

(Ie. You play it online.)

I fail to see how you'd play Counter-Strike with just a lightgun.

But it is kind of funny that you linked to the only lightgun I've ever owned, well, aside from the Zapper, but who didn't have a Zapper?

The nerdy WoW players will keep the PC alive for the rest of time.

When I buy a game I want to be able to go home and immediately play it without having to think about whether or not it will run well or if I need to configure or update hardware. For this reason I will stick to consoles.

Well, since I like to play my games with better graphics, more control options, and better online play, I'll stick to PC.

Not to mention games are cheaper on PC, in fact most new releases come out at $39.99 or $49.99 as opposed to $59.99. Small potatoes to some, but if you buy any substantial amount of games per year then it adds up.

Just look at how it all lines up. Compare the 360, PS3, and PC.

360: Online play costs money
PS3: Online play is free
PC: Online play is free

360: No Mouse and Keyboard support
PS3: Limited support for extra peripherals, but many Mice and Keyboards can be used
PC: Mouse and Keyboard, Trackballs, Controllers, whatever you want.

360: Only one option for online gaming needs, LIVE, and it will cost you
PS3: Only option for online play is PSN and it's the weaker of the three
PC: Choose what you want, Xfire, Steam, Teamspeak, Ventrillo, all free

360: Most games do not use dedicated servers, which means LAG
PS3: Same as 360
PC: 99% of games use dedicated servers, which means the best possible connection

360: Limited Anti-aliasing support, only the occasional game supports Anisotropic filtering
PS3: Very limited Anti-aliasing support, only the occasional game supports Anisotropic filtering
PC: Crank the AA and AF, and if your PC can handle, crank the resolution as well

360: Standard headsets, even if they are shit quality (one of the best moves they made)
PS3: Very few users have headsets, mostly a ghost town
PC: Most users have headsets, but they're not ubiquitous.

Honestly, there have been at least two thousand "No future for PC gaming", "Is PC gaming dying?", "The End of PC Gaming", etc. threads all over the internet for about the last 8 years. Yet PC gaming is still here, and still doing well. When you've got Valve selling a metric fuckton of the best multiplayer games around, Blizzard raking in the dough with WoW while pimping Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2, and even small dev houses like CD Projekt Red selling a million copies of a true PC RPG like The Witcher, you know PC gaming is here to stay.

The piracy argument is also pretty flimsy, because piracy on the 360 is incredibly rampant. Hell, all it takes is an easy mod to the firmware of your DVD drive and bam, you can download and burn every game on the system. In fact, both Fallout 3 and Far Cry 2 leaked for the 360 long before they did for the PC, and thousands upon thousands of 360 pirates had finished them before any PC users had so much as downloaded a .torrent file. I know a guy who's pirated almost every 360 game out there. In fact, he was laughing about how easy it was, and how he had stacks of burned games he's never even put in his console. Yet, despite all this, no one claims the 360 is being killed by piracy. There is definitely a larger amount of people pirating PC games than 360, but there are still a whole lot of people grabbing every new 360 release for free.

I used to be a major PC gamer a few years ago but now hardly play PC games at all. I play EVE online and that's about it. Nowadays I mostly play games on the PS3 seeing how I got mine for free and I own a bitching Panasonic plasma HDTV. I got rid of my gaming PCs because they started sucking, technologically wise, and I didn't feel like upgrading them. Too damn costy and just annoying.

But most of all I'm still enjoying a lot of the last generation consoles. Mostly GC and Dreamcast and some PS2 stuff.

Currently my best PC is a Sony laptop with an nVidia 7600 from two years ago. I mostly re-play older games on it, shit from 10 years ago and that runs very well.

The consoles vs pc "war" is a bit retarded because they're almost impossible to compare. For me, it is just much easier to currently game on consoles.

Honestly,I haven't played a PC game since Team Fortress 1,so take my opinion lightly.

To me it seems like if your name isn't Blizzard or Valve you might as well stick to the consoles to turn any profit. It seems like piracy and system specs are what's bringing down PC gaming as a whole honestly.

Most people have middle of the road PCs and laptops and these games need to start being made with those system specs in mind. Most people aren't going to buy a new computer to play a game on it or have one that runs Crysis top notch. This is the same huge base of people that love playing games like World of Goo and simple Flash games in the browser. Start making games with those people as the "recommended" hard ware and then let people with bigger rigs scale up. People already have a Dell family computer they bought from the show floor or a Gateway laptop they bought at Best Buy and aren't going to buy an entirely new computer to play a game (remember,these people are the same ones who aren't going to understand the idea of buying new parts either)

Then,piracy is the other big one.. Unless you're forced to need a cd key for online play or something (like World of Warcraft or TF2),people will pirate the shit out of the game for the pure reason of being greedy assholes. All this does is move developers to the consoles as their primary platform because they know that's where the money is. Doesn't World of Goo have a 90% piracy rate? That shit is sickening and fucking pathetic. I can understand not feeling justified to pay $49.99 for a 6 hour game,so instead of pirating it,why don't you wait until the price drops or try to find it on sale? Oh,because you're a greedy fuck,that's right. It's easier to download a game and install it on the computer than it is to risk fucking up your entire gaming console,to which you need to then go out and buy an entire new one if you do. And even then if you successfully mod it,you have to hope new firmware doesn't brick it or that you don't get banned from the online service.

I plan on getting back into some PC gaming soon. I ordered a new CPU and video card to run Left4Dead and recently bought Fallout 3 for the PC. Hopefully these parts will run the games looking great (and avoid fucking with all the graphic settings,which is one reason I avoid PC gaming to begin with).

My http://dnr.wi.gov/org/es/science/lc/OUTREACH/BODResource/images%5C2cents2.jpg

Bah! You just wait till someone makes a console game like Counterstrike that implements one of these badboys! (http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/9f/33/74888bacd7a0031807538110._AA280_.L.jpg) Then we'll see who's laughing.

(Ie. You play it online.)

you know, im actually suprised a lot of consoles dont have mouse-keyboards as being a little bit popular.

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01856/media/I-SNES-Mouse-Front.jpg

I prefer controllers to mouse and keyboard on FPSers. I feel that the controller is more comfortable, and the two analogue stick setup is more precise.

That's just me, though.


RTS games are definitely a PC only genre, though.

Man no way.

The whole point of using a mouse to aim is that you can instantly target any point in a 360 degree circle around you. Instantly. No waiting for it to painfully pan around as you get shot up.

Theres no way a controller could be as precise.

And when you watch the good players do it its fucking awesome. Thresh (US), Reload (AU). I can remember the efforts I and friends used to go to with our mice setup it achieve accuracy.

Razer Boomslang mouse, 3m precise mousing surface. Clean the surface and mouse before every gaming session.

The ONLY things that consoles have over pcs are dorm gaming and racing games.

I feel that the controller is more comfortable, and the two analogue stick setup is more precise.

That's just me, though.

Yeah, it is just you, because a mouse is technically much more accurate than an analog stick.

The ONLY things that consoles have over pcs are dorm gaming and racing games.

Why would you say this? PC's have the most realistic sim racers, and nearly all the best Arcade racers are also on PC too (GRiD, DiRT Burnout Paradise, the Flatouts, Midnight Club 2, Most Wanted, Porsche Unleased, Hot Pursuit, etc.). Really the only glaring omission is the PGR games.

Yeah, it is just you, because a mouse is technically much more accurate than an analog stick.



Why would you say this? PC's have the most realistic sim racers, and nearly all the best Arcade racers are also on PC too (GRiD, DiRT Burnout Paradise, the Flatouts, Midnight Club 2, Most Wanted, Porsche Unleased, Hot Pursuit, etc.). Really the only glaring omission is the PGR games.

Because I'm not spending 100 bucks on a faggy racing wheel that turns 45 degrees and I'm sure as shit not using WASD.

Because I'm not spending 100 bucks on a faggy racing wheel that turns 45 degrees and I'm sure as shit not using WASD.

Why not use a controller? I've used my 360 controller for tons of games, and all the new ones have auto configurations for it, it's the standard PC controller now. I played Dead Space, GRiD, and PURE and they all play exactly as they do on the 360, just with much nicer graphics.

Why not use a controller? I've used my 360 controller for tons of games, and all the new ones have auto configurations for it, it's the standard PC controller now. I played Dead Space, GRiD, and PURE and they all play exactly as they do on the 360, just with much nicer graphics.

360 controller + cord = what, 50 bucks?

360 controller + cord = what, 50 bucks?

$40 for the wired I think, probably can find it for considerably cheaper though. It's a great controller, best traditional controller ever made in my opinion.

$40 for the wired I think, probably can find it for considerably cheaper though. It's a great controller, best traditional controller ever made in my opinion.

Well then I still have to find a plug and shit. To be honest I'm not that opposed to the idea, I just havent thought of that in years. Back in the early 00s a friend used to use sega controllers or something to game and it was absolute shit.

$40 for the wired I think, probably can find it for considerably cheaper though. It's a great controller, best traditional controller ever made in my opinion.

Haha I bought my 360 controller for windows 2 years ago. I paid 30$ canadian for it. They had labelled the price wrong on it, and thus had to sell it for that price.

But really, you can find a huge variety of controllers for the PC, so racing games are without a doubt just as good on them, voiding the counter arguement.

For those assholes who prefer the analog sticks in FPS games, well you guys really need to learn about eficiency. First off, a mouse has a higher top speed then the analog stick, actually an almost unlimited top speed. I hate on consoles when I hear somebody behind me while it takes about 2 or 3 seconds to turn around. Also the mouse is much more precise, you just can't argue it. Just because your motor skills with the analog stick is more precise, doesn't mean the overall precision of the mouse is worse. Learn how to use it and it'll be better.

But all in all, the computer and consoles will focus in on their niches. The computer will continue being strong with FPS games and MMO games (generally online games). Most online games cannot be pirated, as it checks over the internet if the CD key is in use. If the CD key has been posted on piratebay or any other obvious place on the internet, the CD key will be blacklisted, often resulting in the game locking itself. PC games still sell millions of copies, atleast the online focused ones.

What I dislike about console games is the amount of low budget ones. When I go pick up a computer game, be it battlefield 2, half life 2, Counter-Strike, WoW, or Crysis, I can expect the game to have a long campaign with lots of online replay value. I've played many PC games for atleast over 500 hours because of their replay value, thats just not something console games can match.
The low budgetness of console games stems from its userbase. Investors know they can invest little money into some tacky game which uses a trademark name and get back their money tenfold from the game's name alone. People go to the store shelves, look for some cool sounding game and buy it, perhaps as a christmas gift. Basically they shop for it. With PC games, they read reviews, play the prequals, hear from friends etc. then they go buy the game, which means the games HAVE to be high budget or nobody will waste their time with it (rather pirate it).

Also, there is no one stopping microsoft from developing a gaming OS for example, where you simply put the game in the drive, load up the OS, it updates drivers automatically and you plug in 4 USB controllers and play split screen. Would be the same as a console, just with modifiable hardware. Or perhaps they could make its hardware non-modifiable, but allow it to run windows aswell and utilizing PC technology with perhaps a microsoft motherboard.

What I dislike about console games is the amount of low budget ones. When I go pick up a computer game, be it battlefield 2, half life 2, Counter-Strike, WoW, or Crysis, I can expect the game to have a long campaign with lots of online replay value. I've played many PC games for atleast over 500 hours because of their replay value, thats just not something console games can match.

I don't see what this has to do with only the PC. It all depends on the games you play and like. I have friends who put a full year's worth of playing into ONE game on the console (I know I played Gears of War daily online since it's release until almost a year later). I don't count mods either because most of the time that's user created content,not developer DLC,so it's technically not official content supplied by the company.

I mean,me and my friends still hop back into old games just like people do with Starcraft on the computer. It just depends on how much you like a game.

About your stance on piracy. Thanks to the new DRM that limits your installs to 3, I have saved myself 600 dollars I would have otherwise spent on games, I didn't pirate them either, I'm just not going to play or buy them. The only games I've bought this year have been Fallout 3 and Wrath of the lich king. I was going to pick up all the new C&C games, spore, the new sims expansions, Deadspace and several other titles. But I didn't considering I have 2 computers and reinstall windows rather frequently when I fuck up the registry or just need to clear everything out.

I don't see what this has to do with only the PC. It all depends on the games you play and like. I have friends who put a full year's worth of playing into ONE game on the console (I know I played Gears of War daily online since it's release until almost a year later). I don't count mods either because most of the time that's user created content,not developer DLC,so it's technically not official content supplied by the company.

I mean,me and my friends still hop back into old games just like people do with Starcraft on the computer. It just depends on how much you like a game.

Well, I'll admit that part of the post was slightly biased. Consoles do have high budget games as well, however these are by far a minority compared to the PC, and many of them are simply PC ports.

And not including mods is wrong, mods are of course a huge advantage the PC has, even though its not official it adds to gaming value, which we're discussing in this thread. Its one of the larger advantages of the PC, where you can go in and make a new map, a new weapon, a new tank, or modify existing ones on your own to your own liking. It really doesn't show off that much for the PC, but rather a downside of the console where many such features that would be technically possible are locked off for simplicity's sake. Sure it might be easier for non-nerds, but when arguing it from a technical standpoint it still lacks.

I feel that the controller is more comfortable, and the two analogue stick setup is more precise.

You may have the comfort point, but more precise? I guess that's why I see console snipers constantly sweep back and forth over their targets, attempting a lock, whereas all I have to do is point and click. Maybe your corner of the court is different, but my group of players swear by a mouse and keyboard, and have yet to have a cross-console team prove to us otherwise.

Then again, this is just my opinion as well. (Though, once again, one I've used to wipe the floor with gamepad wielding nut jobs everywhere. :P)

Quake 3 DC vs. PC, now that was some funny shit.

If you took the best Quake 3 DC player who uses a controller, and put him up against the best Quake 3 PC player I can guarantee the DC player wouldn't get a single kill.