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PC gaming to make a comeback?

post #1 of 130
5/18/11 at 5:42am
Thread Starter 
I took a vacation from PC gaming for the first time in my life a few years back. Mind you I've been PC gaming since the very early 80's. I Went strictly console mostly due to an injury that prevented me from sitting at a PC. Now with BT keyboards/mice and HDTV and affordable front PJ's, PC gaming is a blast in the living room too.

With every generation of consoles, they seem to take a popularity hike the first few years and then as they age PC's get popular again. This generation of consoles has certainly held my interest much longer then other gens, probably due to HDTV resolutions closing the gap as well as successful multiplayer games. Then there are the multiple PC devs jumping ship to consoles or dying off completely. Let us not forget all of the bad console to pc ports. The last few years for PC Gaming has been rough.

But this year we got a few big hits. Portal 2, Crysis 2, Duke Nukem, Rage, Skyrim and more. With consoles finally aging and hitting their graphical peak for some time now. Do you think PC gaming will make a return?

I know one thing. I'm going through Crysis 2 now. Running it on full on a 1080 front projector 8700ub at 110". This game is @#@# wicked. I love it, and I can not believe I have neglected PC gaming this long because it looks SOOOO good. Easily the best looking game in years and a "proper" campaign to boot. I got my ass kicked a few times while getting used to the mouse again though...lol.

I don't know if I can go back to plain old console graphics now, I'm ruined. I think from this point on, any multi platform games, I'm grabbing PC version instead. I'm sick of the unreliable console crap anyways.

If you are one of the few lucky to have a 3 monitor setup, even more of a reason to avoid console games. I hope things return back to PC gaming again, I love it.
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post #2 of 130
5/18/11 at 6:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by newfmp3 View Post

Do you think PC gaming will make a return?

Yes, it already is.
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post #3 of 130
5/18/11 at 12:25pm
I think PC gaming is on the verge of reaching significant popularity.

A good PC gaming rig is no longer very expensive, and Nvidia in particular is doing a good job in marketing affordable graphics cards like the GTX 560 (non Ti) as a good "1080p gaming card."

Over the years, it seems that both ATI/AMD and Nvidia have increased their roles in helping game developers. This is obviously important in establishing developer interest in making their games available on the PC. There is a recent article on the MaximumPC site that discusses Capcom's increasing focus on the PC gaming platform.
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post #4 of 130
5/18/11 at 12:31pm
I never left. I prefer my FPS using mouse/keyboard combo. And, there are games that can only be played on the console.
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post #5 of 130
5/18/11 at 12:32pm
High resolutions and having 3 monitors w/ AMD Eyefinity got me hooked again. This is something that cannot be recreated on a console and im luvin it
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post #6 of 130
5/18/11 at 12:50pm
These are just some of the reasons why PC gaming is a tough sell these days.

PC Gamers get console ports that are toned down to run on the consoles. Look at Crysis 2 for example.

This trend will continue due to the amount of cash starved gamers out there. The cost of PC gaming is often 4-6 times that of "Ghetto Gaming" on the consoles. Consoles games often outsell the PC version due to the sheer number of console gamers out there and the affordability of console gaming.

Mom buys "Little Johnny" a Xbox 360 and he is all set for 5 years. He nevers leaves his bedroom. No upgrades or additional hardware required. Mom is happy and "Little Johnny" is happy.

Piracy is a lot harder, if not impossible, on the consoles than it is on the PC. Developers stick with those platforms to insure good profit margins and mass sales.

For every 25- 40 year old gamer on the PC there must be 500 "pimply faced teenaged boys" on the Xbox 360. We are out numbered by a large margin.

I think Crysis 1 was the proverbial "Nail in the Coffin" that scared a lot of gamers away when it was released. No one could run the game for less than $ 2500.00 at the time. Most gamers left for consoles and few could afford to return.

I often had Parents come in my Store with a copy of Crysis 1 that "Little Johnny" tried to run on his HP machine with integrated video. (As you all know, that did not go too well). "Little Johnny" was in tears. After quoting " DAD" several thousand dollars for a custom gaming machine he was the one in tears. :-). I gave "DAD" a glass of water, a tissue, oxygen, dialed 911 for his cheat pains, and then sent him to Best Buy to buy an Xbox360 and tried not to let the door hit him in the ass on the way out! ;-).
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post #7 of 130
5/18/11 at 1:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by WiseGuy2k7 View Post

High resolutions and having 3 monitors w/ AMD Eyefinity got me hooked again. This is something that cannot be recreated on a console and im luvin it

I hear you and I get it. Many console gamers do not.
I play @ 2560 x 1600 this can never be recreated on the consoles.
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post #8 of 130
5/18/11 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSmith83 View Post

I think PC gaming is on the verge of reaching significant popularity.

A good PC gaming rig is no longer very expensive, and Nvidia in particular is doing a good job in marketing affordable graphics cards like the GTX 560 (non Ti) as a good "1080p gaming card."

Over the years, it seems that both ATI/AMD and Nvidia have increased their roles in helping game developers. This is obviously important in establishing developer interest in making their games available on the PC. There is a recent article on the MaximumPC site that discusses Capcom's increasing focus on the PC gaming platform.

I am with you, but you are stilling talking $ 1200.00 or so for a rig with some power. PC gamers still do not get a dedicated version of new releases to exploit the power advantage we have over the consoles.
IMO, if the Next Gen consoles support KB and Mouse natively, PC Gaming will be a memory. I hope I am wrong.
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post #9 of 130
5/18/11 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by newfmp3 View Post

With every generation of consoles, they seem to take a popularity hike the first few years and then as they age PC's get popular again. This generation of consoles has certainly held my interest much longer then other gens, probably due to HDTV resolutions closing the gap as well as successful multiplayer games.

Each generation of console games also takes a bigger bite out of the core PC segment. This gen it's the fact that every single game you mentioned is launching on the same day on console. For the extra money you pretty much just get nicer graphics... which is how it should be, but not compelling for everyone. Back in the last gen if you got anything it was a cut down port (Unreal Championship, Half-Life 2, Deus Ex, Doom 3, etc., on Xbox 1/PS2).

I can understand the benefits but I just have no desire to wade back into the PC world. I can barely play what I have on my consoles and another system in the mix would just be more games I can't play. Not to mention the upgrading, tweaking, maintaining, which I just don't want to do.

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post

For every 25- 40 year old gamer on the PC there must be 500 "pimply faced teenaged boys" on the Xbox 360. We are out numbered by a large margin.

I think this is wrong. I'm 29 years old. I have a mortgage now and I don't have time for tons of games and tons of spare cash for a souped up PC.... like I did in high school. Yea I was primarily a PC gamer when I was a pimply faced teenaged boy.

My father, in his 50's, is on Xbox 360 almost every night. Yea he's not mucking around with a gaming PC.

The average gamer is now in their 20's if not 30's. I would say that the pimply faced teenaged boys is, if anything, a minority on Xbox 360.
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post #10 of 130
5/18/11 at 2:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by number1laing View Post

The average gamer is now in their 20's if not 30's. I would say that the pimply faced teenaged boys is, if anything, a minority on Xbox 360.

All your comments are valid except the age group. The core group would have to be teen boys. I am sure this info exists somewhere. Maybe someone can direct us to a definitive answer.

Why would your dad prefer the Xbox360 over a high end gaming PC? How in the world does he play with that damn pad?
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post #11 of 130
5/18/11 at 3:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post
Piracy is a lot harder, if not impossible, on the consoles than it is on the PC. Developers stick with those platforms to insure good profit margins and mass sales.
????? Console piracy may not be as bad as pc but it's getting there. you can dL any game you want for the 360 and all you need is a software mod for your box.
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post #12 of 130
5/18/11 at 4:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by N8DOGG View Post
????? Console piracy may not be as bad as pc but it's getting there. you can dL any game you want for the 360 and all you need is a software mod for your box.
How does multiplayer work?
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post #13 of 130
5/18/11 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post
All your comments are valid except the age group. The core group would have to be teen boys. I am sure this info exists somewhere. Maybe someone can direct us to a definitive answer.

Why would your dad prefer the Xbox360 over a high end gaming PC? How in the world does he play with that damn pad?
It's common knowledge and has been proven with statistics gathered in recent studies that the average gamer is someone well into their 30's. Consoles are extremely popular in the late 20's to mid-30's crowd with PC gaming being a distant second because that's what they grew up with being that they are the console generation. Older people like yourself focus on PC gaming because that's what they picked up as adults when PCs gained traction in the household and the games were geared towards adults.

Teenagers, if they have any interest in gaming at all these days, will usually go for portable or mobile gaming through their phones or systems like the PSP and DS because they don't have to deal with the physical baggage and much higher costs associated with a PC or console platform. Some will gravitate to consoles or partake in PC MMOs like WoW, but mobile gaming is where it's at for them. That's why we now have a huge push for advanced 3D graphics for phones from companies like Nvidia with their Tegra processors and why Sony has created a PSP-like phone.
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post #14 of 130
5/18/11 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post
How does multiplayer work?
The console reads the game as if it was genuine and the user can play online if they have an XBL Gold account. Such counterfeited games can often be modded, since the console software has been modified, to allow for all sorts of things which is why they result in permanent banishment.
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post #15 of 130
5/18/11 at 5:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LexInVA View Post
Older people like yourself.
Hey watch it ..... I am 47... not quite dead yet.
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post #16 of 130
5/18/11 at 5:43pm
I don't know if it's making a comeback, but I will be making my first real foray into it. I've been pretty much only into consoles for a decade or more (though I've had consoles since NES); last *real* PC game I played was FFVII at/near release.

All my parts will be here Friday, along with the Witcher 2. Hope I enjoy the overall experience a PC gives (plan to use it both with my HT equipment and a normal monitor sometimes; I will be limited to 1080p in both instances though), as it was certainly a pricey endeavor.
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post #17 of 130
5/18/11 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post
All your comments are valid except the age group. The core group would have to be teen boys. I am sure this info exists somewhere. Maybe someone can direct us to a definitive answer.

Why would your dad prefer the Xbox360 over a high end gaming PC? How in the world does he play with that damn pad?
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/23/ne...ps3-consumers/

360 35-44, PS3 even older.

That sounds a bit on the high side but not so high that it's actually 16. The core of the 360 ownership is older post-college folks who have been playing games for a long time and have lots of money to spend. Remember, the PlayStation brand has been around 16 years... and people have been on board since day one. I was 14 when the PS1 came out.

Regarding your other comment... I've said this before, but more people play Halo 3/Reach, Call of Duty, etc., on console with a pad than ever played FPS games on PC. Quake, Unreal, etc., never pulled Halo numbers or even close to it. For every one person that swears they cannot play one of these games with a paid, there are hundreds who have absolutely no problem with it.
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post #18 of 130
5/18/11 at 6:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post
How does multiplayer work?
Like Lex said, you CAN play multi and tons of people do and get away with it but you run a risk of being bricked. If you play offline you can play any game you can DL and thats pretty much every game. If you get a chip installed theres even a switch so you can turn it off and on, so when you go on live it's undetectable that you have a modded machine because it's still running it's genuine MS software.
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post #19 of 130
5/18/11 at 7:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by N8DOGG View Post

Like Lex said, you CAN play multi and tons of people do and get away with it but you run a risk of being bricked. If you play offline you can play any game you can DL and thats pretty much every game. If you get a chip installed theres even a switch so you can turn it off and on, so when you go on live it's undetectable that you have a modded machine because it's still running it's genuine MS software.

Heh, at that point it's just easier to build a PC.
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post #20 of 130
5/18/11 at 8:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by N8DOGG View Post

Like Lex said, you CAN play multi and tons of people do and get away with it but you run a risk of being bricked. If you play offline you can play any game you can DL and thats pretty much every game. If you get a chip installed theres even a switch so you can turn it off and on, so when you go on live it's undetectable that you have a modded machine because it's still running it's genuine MS software.

Dang I knew about the soft mod (a bricked console cured my pirate bug), but had no idea there was a chip you could turn on/off.
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post #21 of 130
5/18/11 at 9:16pm
These guys are 15 mins from my place and are excellent to deal with.
http://www.modchip.ca/store/home.php?cat=284

It's getting so easy, even a caveman could do it
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post #22 of 130
5/18/11 at 9:41pm
About once a year for the last, i don't know, 10 or so years, i run across someone mentioning the average age of a gamer. I've always heard from 28 to 33... I only play PC, so it's likely that those figures may be for PC gamers.
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post #23 of 130
5/19/11 at 11:28am
I can tell you that I'm one of the few console gamers that have now embraced PC gaming. Been console gaming for 10+ years, with no PC gaming at all. (I was a PC gamer back in the 3DFx days).

I came back to PC, because I feel like the consoles are getting a bit long in the tooth, and I'm anxious for some experiences that are on a "higher" level so to speak. I know that 90 percent of the games out there are just console ports, but they run at a much higher resolution, and you can turn all the extra visual effects on, and they can look considerably better than their console brethren.

I will say this however....

As soon as Microsoft or Sony has a new kick ass gaming console, I'll be ditching PC's again. Why? Because I just spent 1 grand building this rig, and I'm not planning on doing that again anytime in the near future. My thinking was that this PC will get me by until Microsoft or Sony comes calling again. I currently have an overclocked 560 Ti, that seems to be running the games very well, but I'm not sure how long that is going to last, but I'm hoping it will last long enough for Microsoft or Sony to bring their next console out. That's the way I'm looking at it. Worst case scenario is that if Microsoft or Sony take too long to bring out their next machine, then I'll probably have to upgrade the video card at least once. I guess I could live with that, but I'm not going back to the old cycle of constant upgrades, like I did in the 3dFX days.
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post #24 of 130
5/19/11 at 11:49am
A lot of people don't see a good value proposition with PC gaming, but I'm the opposite in that I think console gaming is not worth the money.

It was fun jumping through hoops to get the then over $600 PS3 near launch. However, the only games that I ended up really playing on it were the MLB: The Show games.

I played the Wii that I bought and received on launch day for about 6 months before it started collecting dust in perpetuity. I'm sure I missed quite a few good games, but the system itself never really grabbed my interest.

The Xbox 360 was junk. I went through two of those things just by gaming in moderate amounts. I had completely given up on it since.

I'll probably skip the next generation of consoles altogether.
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post #25 of 130
5/19/11 at 12:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony1 View Post

but I'm not going back to the old cycle of constant upgrades, like I did in the 3dFX days.

That is the best part. The tweaks to get that extra performance for that new release.... I miss the golden age of PC gaming.
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post #26 of 130
5/19/11 at 12:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MSmith83 View Post

A lot of people don't see a good value proposition with PC gaming, but I'm the opposite in that I think console gaming is not worth the money.

It was fun jumping through hoops to get the then over $600 PS3 near launch. However, the only games that I ended up really playing on it were the MLB: The Show games.

I played the Wii that I bought and received on launch day for about 6 months before it started collecting dust in perpetuity. I'm sure I missed quite a few good games, but the system itself never really grabbed my interest.

The Xbox 360 was junk. I went through two of those things just by gaming in moderate amounts. I had completely given up on it since.

I'll probably skip the next generation of consoles altogether.

I don't expect that to be the case for me, though I'm following a similar line to Anthony (as to one reason I'm getting into PC gaming).

However if I'm as impressed with pc gaming as I hope to be, I likely won't get every console like I did this generation. I'd probably just get one system, mainly for sports titles and some other titles that my console friends play a lot.
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post #27 of 130
5/19/11 at 12:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pjb16 View Post

I don't expect that to be the case for me, though I'm following a similar line to Anthony (as to one reason I'm getting into PC gaming).

However if I'm as impressed with pc gaming as I hope to be, I likely won't get every console like I did this generation. I'd probably just get one system, mainly for sports titles and some other titles that my console friends play a lot.

I am hoping the PS4 ???? would have native keyboard/mouse support at the very least. I did play Resistance 1 and 2, Dead Space 1 and 2, and Kill Zone 2 and 3 on my PS3. I used this to play (http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Mouse-Ke...5832402&sr=8-1) and beat all 6 games on medium setting. I was getting no where quick using the PS3 controller, so I was thrilled when I found the Eagle Eye. It works really well and it almost feels like the PC.
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post #28 of 130
5/19/11 at 12:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blackssr View Post

I am hoping the PS4 ???? would have native keyboard/mouse support at the very least. I did play Resistance 1 and 2, Dead Space 1 and 2, and Kill Zone 2 and 3 on my PS3. I used this to play (http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-Mouse-Ke...5832402&sr=8-1) and beat all 6 games on medium setting. I was getting no where quick using the PS3 controller, so I was thrilled when I found the Eagle Eye. It works really well and it almost feels like the PC.

I don't need a keyboard and mouse. I'm perfectly content with a controller for shooters.
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post #29 of 130
5/19/11 at 12:37pm
I just like how pc gets alot of indie developers that arent making cookie cutter games. Amnesia: The Dark Descent comes to mind great game that is a quarter of the price of a console game.
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post #30 of 130
5/19/11 at 2:25pm
I still enjoy PC gaming over consoles not only because of the better graphics, but multiplayer is much more fun with 'adults' as opposed to a bunch of 12 year old kids on XBox. Also, I expect Battlefield 3 to blow PC gaming wide open since DICE has already said the PC is their main development platform. This game might be the 'killer game' to get many excited about PC gaming again, especially if the graphics are that much better than on console (which have outdated graphic chips compared to a newer PC).
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