PC Gaming, where are you

[HappyTree]

I was living in Toulouse, very hot summers in a flat with no aircon. It wasn't so bad, a dry heat that one got used to. But the desk fan was a must and I think the heat killed the laptop, or maybe it wasn't that well designed in the first place.

As for PC being for the ultimate, dedicated gamer, that could well be the case. I don't have the time or the inclination to be that dedicated and I find the 360's resolution to be more than spectacular to my eyes. Maybe my taste is just for smooth graphics, I found Oblivion on the PC to be a little too crisp to look that natural. It was great using a high resolution on my TV hooked up by HDMI but I didn't find it superior to the 360 on the same TV at all.

I've sometimes wondered if I might like to paddle in the WoW waters but as I can't really be bothered with multi-player games in general I don't suppose it's for the likes of me. I tend to prefer the gaming technique called "fannying about" to serious application and I fear I would just annoy other players with my casual attitude. The only game I've ever played online with other people (apart from a text-based RPG) was Test Drive Unlimited, using the month's free Xbox Live card I got with the machine. I found everyone to be far better than me with all the fastest cars. They were literally running rings around me doing handbrake turns and it got tedious.

I did enjoy DOOM back in the day, hooked up to a friend's PC with a serial cable, but the fun there was being in the same room as him and using the maps he'd designed himself.

I guess I'm not a "gamer", just a dilettante.

[AsparagusTrevor]

I'll just add that I don't have anything against console gamers in the slightest, I'm a big supporter of gaming in general and I'm glad of its popularity in any form.

Even though I advocate PC gaming, I sure as hell hate the fucking elitist twats that come with it. I stopped playing Team Fortress pretty quickly because every game would have some American guys on their headsets telling everyone, "no you should've done this, you should've done that" but not actually showing the skill to back up their comments. The only game I play online is Left 4 Dead 2, and that's always with mates. I'm sure you get these bellends with console gaming too, but I do agree the 'hardcore' attitude that a lot of PC gamers have probably make it more commonplace. Sometimes it seems they're forgetting the reason for playing games is usually 'fun'.

[HappyTree]

I'm sure you've all seen this already, but it seems like a suitable juncture for everyone's favourite gaming rebel. Mr. Leeroy JENKINS!

Leeroy Jenkins

[Still Not George]

I enjoy gaming on all three platforms. The assumption that PC gaming is dead is rather stupid, the biggest game on planet earth and the most profitable world of warcraft is on the PC. With 12 million active subscribers; destroying games sales everywhere this model draws from the average addict around 100 USD a year.

Which is pretty much the reason why no-one but Blizzard and CCP makes any real money on the platform any more. The core gamer market spends all its PC time playing WoW or EVE reflexively.

[falafel]

How does one play a game reflexively?

The fact remains the PS3 and 360 both output a shitty 1280 x 720p image (if you are lucky) then this is upscaled to 1080p. These are lowly shite stats for any decent gaming machine. Until PS4 and XBox 720 reach 1080p fidelity they will always be inferior systems to play around on; to the trained eye.

I've always wondered. How does a higher resolution improve the experience? On my telly, 720p is the native resolution and it's what I use for both PC and console games. Lets me squeeze a few more FPS out of the PC too. The only real advantage I can think of is to allow more text on screen, but you can get plenty as it is. The obsession with resolution just seems gratuitous to me.

Seriously, what's wrong with 720p? Unless you're playing it on a non- native resolution screen, in which case yes it will look fairly shit because of how LCD screens deal with that.

[Zetetic]

Which is pretty much the reason why no-one but Blizzard and CCP makes any real money on the platform any more.

I'd wondered why Gabe was looking so thin these days. Maybe with the release on PS3 of Portal 2, he'll be able to eat again.

[wasp_f15ting]

How does one play a game reflexively?

I've always wondered. How does a higher resolution improve the experience? On my telly, 720p is the native resolution and it's what I use for both PC and console games. Lets me squeeze a few more FPS out of the PC too. The only real advantage I can think of is to allow more text on screen, but you can get plenty as it is. The obsession with resolution just seems gratuitous to me.

Seriously, what's wrong with 720p? Unless you're playing it on a non- native resolution screen, in which case yes it will look fairly shit because of how LCD screens deal with that.

I think you answered it with your question. 1280 x 720 is rather unsightly on a 1920 x 1200 monitor. 1280 x 720 native doesn't exist on monitors these days, televisions yes. When I am say 20" away from a 1920 x 1200 monitor the resolution and texture clarity is going to be far greater than if I played the same on a 720p on a 47" TV. I think 32-37" is the real limit for 720p beyond this point if the screen is not native then visible artefacts become visible.

However, if you play 720p on a PC monitor from a console source you can clearly see the issues as you are sat so close.

[Mister Six]

PC gaming is not relevant to the plebeian gamer

[HappyTree]

Don't sit
Don't sit
Don't sit so close to me

I knackered my eyes sitting too close to a computer monitor for too long. Luckily the damage was only temporary and I got my long sightedness back. From then on I've refused to sit too close to a monitor.

I don't care what the resolution numbers are, just give me a nice, big TV screen I can sit far away from and let me game away without fear of blindness!

[wasp_f15ting]

Don't sit
Don't sit
Don't sit so close to me

I knackered my eyes sitting too close to a computer monitor for too long. Luckily the damage was only temporary and I got my long sightedness back. From then on I've refused to sit too close to a monitor.

I don't care what the resolution numbers are, just give me a nice, big TV screen I can sit far away from and let me game away without fear of blindness!

Very good advice indeed. As I now suffer from myopia, I blame work; however those hours upon hours of quake, team fortress and wow didn't probably help.. You are a happy tree, I am a broken branch.

[HappyTree]

lol. Even the most weather-beaten sapling can rise again and blossom! Just don't be closer than 4' to the screen and bump up the icon and text sizes.

[Still Not George]

How does one play a game reflexively?

You ever spent much time around a WoW player? Seriously, that's reflexive gameplaying. I've known WoW players to start their machines up without realising they're doing it. I've known them to log in to check their auctions while bleeding rather nastily.

I'd wondered why Gabe was looking so thin these days. Maybe with the release on PS3 of Portal 2, he'll be able to eat again.

Har de fucking har. We already covered Valve to death. Still doesn't make it any easier to get traction on a platform that hosts a game adults play so much it causes divorces and sackings.

[waste of chops]

There's a Steam sale running until the 29th, with different deals every day at 6pm. There wasn't anything particularly inspiring yesterday, but there's an awesome offer today: the Indie Story Pack for £4. It includes:

And Yet It Moves
Gish
Jolly Rover
Puzzle Agent
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

Recettear is an absolute fucking steal for that price, never mind with another four games bundled with it.

[Steve Lampkins]

The Thanksgiving / Black Friday deals are often good. Amazon UK should be having some this year.

I have games bought in Steam sales that I've not even got round to playing once though.

[AsparagusTrevor]

They're selling Batman Arkham Asylum for a fiver!!

[Mister Six]

Fuck! If anyone's doubting that as a decent purchase then doubt no longer: Arkham Asylum was one of the best games of last year, even with the awful PC interface. If you've got one of those Xbox controllers then it's an absolute must-have. An absolutely corking game.

[waste of chops]

Today's Steam deals:

Burnout Paradise - £7.49
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II - £13.60
Machinarium - £3.75
Tropico 3: Gold Edition - £7.50
Torchlight - £3.75
Empire: Total War - £9.99
ARMA II: Operation Arrowhead - £9.99
Blur - £9.99
Indie Clever Pack (Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time, Eufloria, Iron Grip: Warlord, VVVVVV, World of Goo) - £3.99

I think I've mentioned it here before, but VVVVVV is fantastic. It's Yet Another Retro-Themed Indie Platformer, but instead of looking a bit like a NES game like most other RTIPs do, it very specifically looks like a C64 game and has touches of games like Jet Set Willy (every room in the game has a name, and enemies can be quite abstract -- some screens have you dodging giant flying words, for example). It's normally four quid anyway, but you might as well buy it now and get a few more games thrown in for nothing, right?

[AsparagusTrevor]

The gift packs they're doing are quite mad too, for example today you can buy six copies[nb]to give to other people as gifts, of course[/nb] of Portal for a tenner!

[waste of chops]

Fuck that, I'll just play all 6 back-to-back.

Today's offers are up:

Left 4 Dead 2 - £3.75
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - £9.99
Wings of Prey £9.99
Supreme Commander 2 - £2.50
Galcon Fusion - £1.75
King's Bounty: Platinum Edition - £7.50
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light - £4.99
GTA4: Episodes from Liberty City - £6.80
Indie Pulse Pack (AudioSurf, Beat Hazard, BIT.TRIP BEAT, Rhythm Zone, The Polynomial - Space of the music) - £3.99

[Still Not George]

Oh, fucking hell. And just when I'm completely skint, too.

[Still Not George]

Actually, TRL just posted these on the bargains thread. Without meaning to backseat moderate, can we keep them over there? I generally don't go in there when I'm broke, is all, cos I know that seeing lists of games I want at knock-down prices (that I still can't afford and won't be able to for the duration of the deal) just depresses the hell out of me.

[Mister Six]

The Guardian of Light's a fucking bargain for five quid, but only if you've got a friend you can play it with (and have those Xbox controllers that work on the PC, because the key/mouse controls are shite).

[VegaLA]

The shot in the arm PC gaming needs?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/02/gaikai-enters-closed-beta-we-get-an-exclusive-first-look/

[Zetetic]

Turning them into consoles with keyboards? You might be right...

If anything, I'm worried that it's stuff like that, that's going to kill PC gaming. Ad-driven worries me, as while I can see that it might even allow for games of great depth and length (such a F2P MMOs or some such), I'm much more convinced it'll lead towards Battlefield Heroes territory.

[TheUnknownDude]

God, the last thing I've really played on the pc in while was that emulated arcade version of blazblue and
last years tohou. But a week ago I played Civ5. So I probably won't be doing that for a while.

[El Unicornio, mang]

The fact remains the PS3 and 360 both output a shitty 1280 x 720p image (if you are lucky) then this is upscaled to 1080p. These are lowly shite stats for any decent gaming machine. Until PS4 and XBox 720 reach 1080p fidelity they will always be inferior systems to play around on; to the trained eye.

Kind of irrelevant though, I doubt anyone is sitting playing a game on a PS3 or 360 thinking "This looks really shitty". It might not look as good as 1080p but then again 1080p doesn't look as good as...whatever they're going to have in 5 years time, and so on. Similarly, DVD looked amazing before I saw Blu-Ray, now it looks kind of bad in comparison, but my enjoyment of watching DVDs wasn't any less because of this. I'm a PC gamer and I almost always play at 1920x1080 but if I have to switch to 1280x720 it doesn't matter once I've got into the game. Maybe if I sat and switched frantically between them, critically analysing every shadow and jagged outline I might get annoyed but that would be silly (and I did actually do this once and realised it was a waste of time).

[Mister Six]

Yeah, I think the important phrase there is 'to the trained eye'. Most eyes aren't trained, and even if they were most of them would be be attached to people that just don't give a fuck. I'm far more interested in being able to bring home a game and play it straight off on my comfy living room Xbox setup than in worrying about whether the resolution has another 300 pixels in it. Especially because I'll be sitting further away from the TV than most people sit away from their PCs, at which distance the difference is difficult to see.

(Also, Waspy's attitude is one of the things that puts me off PC gaming a bit: that smug sense of superiority, calling console users 'plebian gamers' and PC users 'trained'. PS3 and Xbox fanboys are irritating but at least they're mostly 15-year-old losers. I've met too many grown-up PC gamers who still sneer at consoles, as though we're still in the NES days of every game being a side-scrolling platformer.)