It won't die.... it's the zombie that keeps getting back up no matter how many times you plug it full of lead. It's head keeps growing back and has infinite life.
You can't kill it, it's THE ORIGINAL ZOMBIE.
Actually, now that I think of it, I believe PC Gaming "CAN" be killed.
That's if you don't count MMORPGs (WoW) and other casual games.
Developing for the PC has always been more work for developers. Having to support so many different combinations of elements (OS versions, different hardware, driver versions, peripherals, etc). Combine that with an abysmal return of investment (more piracy, less sales). I'm starting to think that I don't really blame them.
Imagine if none of the big guys (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, MS, Sony, etc) decide to simply stop releasing games on the PC altogether?
PC gamers won't even be able to pirate the games they want to play anymore. So they'll simply have to give up, get a console and pay those companies $10 more for each game (+ DLC) or simply give up gaming (less likely).
Will all PC gaming disappear? Nope. Will fewer and fewer big name games make it to the PC? You bet. Already started to with the EA Sports titles and so many great console exclusives either way.
Actually, if they only supported keyboard / mouse I'd probably be a convert as well! Is it that hard to support those 2 things? (even force me to buy an MS XBox 360 mouse, I don't care).
As far as equality online, simply ensure k/m players have to play together and not with controller people and you are set. Want to play with your friend that uses a controller, well, you'll have to switch. Wouldn't mind that.
Yes, the keyboard/mouse is one of the single biggest reasons I stick with PC gaming. But that's just me.
What is this shit? Another company that built its reputation on the PC then fucks its base in the ass. LOL nice, How about just put in the dedicated servers ID. You might now want to piss off the PC guys, once the console hype is over you might need them.
The art style was good and there were things I enjoyed about the game, but if you can get two days into playing a game and you haven't seen a single "Wow!" moment, there is something pretty seriously wrong with the game.
I had a wow moment when I hit that monster which guarded the Sledge's miner's shack key...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Avatar
If you follow the main quest in Oblivion, you will go into a castle that is under siege, go through a gateway and be in some kind of 'hell' type realm in the first 5 hours of the game.
You really are a different gamer from me. I've put in 80 to 100 hours into Oblivion, and I still haven't started the main quest. My interest was in the sandbox world. 's Nice to know there is this larger thing I can go on, but it's usually not as well done as the stories I make/encounter myself in such an open world. But, if you need to be led around, good for you. That's what the main quest is there for.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Avatar
That is the kind of experience you need to find in a RPG... not endlessly shooting the same re-spawning monster and bandit over and over for two full nights of gameplay.
You misunderstand the meaning of RPG. ROLE playing game. Your experience as mentioned above is to be led through some kind of 'evil takes over the world and you are the only one with a big enough dick to stop it' storyline, whilst others are like me, and just want to play a role in the world, and encounter cool shit, do fun stuff, and consider the dremora/god statue quests to be the 'big thing' in the story of the character who's role they are playing. I'm not dismissing you, I'm just saying that you play a different game from the one many others play.
As in Diablo. Borderlands is Diablo with guns (and in 3d). The last line of the quote above is word for word what you do in Diablo. Now, if you thought Diablo was shit, gameplay wise, fine. If you played and enjoyed it, you can't hold it against people that they like Borderlands. In essence, it's THE SAME GAME. Well, the same sets of gameplay mechanics which work on ringing Pavlov's bell using loot instead of food, but thye only valid critisism of that would be 'I don't like playing a game like that' or 'I have had enough of that mechanic due to me playing Diablo already'. Your stated critisism is invalid if you liked Diablo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Avatar
I think they hit the art direction spot-on, but they forgot to including the 'game' in their role-playing game.
The game is what the last line of the previous quote was: shoot people, get loot. Do with friends.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evil Avatar
As for dedicated servers, I'm with a few of the other readers. I'm on the sidelines eating popcorn and watching the fun. I feel like PC gaming has been dead for a long time. Other than one or two pity ports of console games there isn't much out there worthwhile. I don't think dedicated servers is the final nail in the coffin, it is more like someone putting flowers on the grave.
?
First off, you come across like someone who has not really experienced what dedicated servers mean. The sense of place it provides, with people who think like you, actual community. It is something you might have to searcgh a few servers for, but it is something matchmaking just CAN NOT do. I liken you to a person who only knows dialup, and says it's perfectly fine, suits your needs and is just peachy, and who needs that DSL/phat pipe? But every person I've seen transition to a decent speed always-on internet connection can't belive how much of a differenmce that means to what the internet IS to them. That's dedicated servers: so much better than matchmaking it's bizzare; a good dedicated server is like a webforum you know and like. Sure, you could go to Bluesnews, but that's too pc-and-not-console-focussed-likeEvAv, and the people have a differnt style and sense of humour. And then you find that server which has the people and play you like, and you're in gaming nirvana, a place where people play the game like you think it should be played. Matchmaking just CAN NOT DO THAT.
On a side note, I recently re-installed Jedi Kight 2, Jedi Outcast. I started up a MP game and landed in a server where I swear some people where just sitting around, chatting, using it as a kind of jedi-council re-inactment/IRC channel, every so often duelling for the hell of it. I left, out of respect to the people there. It wasn't my thing, it wasn't meant to be my thing, but they were having fun. Not something which CAN happen on consoles, though. Imagine some mouth-breathing, swearing racist little 13 year old stumbling across that in LIVE...
Anyway, as always later in the console cycle (ie after the consoles have been out for a while), the innovation is once again on the pc side due to better hardware (hell, my ancient 7800 is better than what's driving the x360). Graphically, the pc has been better looking for a while already. Technically, there are so many things the pc can do which consoles just CAN NOT DO (partially due to in/not-in-order processing diferences). MMO's, AI, shaders, consoles just cannnot do the high end, because the high end has been shifting since the current gen consoles came out, and the consoles couldn't shift along.
Did you play Zeno Clash? Dyson? Any games with mods (pc only, that genre...mods, levelscaling fixes or FOV initweaks dont exist on consoles)? The Witcher? King's Bounty? Any other of the many innovative and haunting eastern european games which only come out for the pc?
And playing a well ported game is ALWAYS better on the pc. Hell, playing Borderlands on the pc is a better experience than on the console, purely because I can change the FOV to what works for me (and the font size, and the way duck is now not a toggle for me, and the high res I play at on my big ass screen, and mouse/keyboard, and and and).
Every generation of console we hear: 'pc gaming is dead'. But it never is; the only thing which does truly die is the that generation of console, whilst the pc plugs merrily along, driving innovation deu to it's ZERO barrier to entry and it's HUGE installbase. In ten years time, I'll still be playing pc games, but your 360 WILL be gathering dust. Who's grave are the flowers on then?
Actually, now that I think of it, I believe PC Gaming "CAN" be killed.
That's if you don't count MMORPGs (WoW) and other casual games.
Developing for the PC has always been more work for developers. Having to support so many different combinations of elements (OS versions, different hardware, driver versions, peripherals, etc). Combine that with an abysmal return of investment (more piracy, less sales). I'm starting to think that I don't really blame them.
Imagine if none of the big guys (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, MS, Sony, etc) decide to simply stop releasing games on the PC altogether?
PC gamers won't even be able to pirate the games they want to play anymore. So they'll simply have to give up, get a console and pay those companies $10 more for each game (+ DLC) or simply give up gaming (less likely).
Will all PC gaming disappear? Nope. Will fewer and fewer big name games make it to the PC? You bet. Already started to with the EA Sports titles and so many great console exclusives either way.
Actually, if they only supported keyboard / mouse I'd probably be a convert as well! Is it that hard to support those 2 things? (even force me to buy an MS XBox 360 mouse, I don't care).
As far as equality online, simply ensure k/m players have to play together and not with controller people and you are set. Want to play with your friend that uses a controller, well, you'll have to switch. Wouldn't mind that.
Yes, the keyboard/mouse is one of the single biggest reasons I stick with PC gaming. But that's just me.
If somehow PC gaming (minus the MMORPG juggernaut, casual games, indie scene, mod scene, low-budget scene) dies, it will only be the death of console ports, and I somehow don't mind that. Strategy games will also always call PC gaming home. Sorry, but if the big five Publishers decided to stop making games for PC I don't think it'd make a damn difference.
Now, aren't you forgetting something? STEAM! Steam, and digital distro in general, is the flaming saviour sword of PC gaming. Consider this: PC gaming is becoming increasingly difficult for the big publishers to port (funny, i know) or develop for because they have trouble tracking sales and losses to piracy and a myriad of other reasons you mentioned. Now, envision a couple of years down the road and now you might have a much more invasive, proprietary version of Steam which might require certain hardware (system requirements) or certain controllers to play on. In this future, where Steam has conquered most all retail sales and PC gamers must have it installed in order to play pretty much anything worth playing, you can more tightly control the experience. Devs and Pubs would be happier to see this kind of future because they could more closely keep piracy in check, as well as deal with much fewer (or Steam-derived) hardware requirements.
See, it all comes down to this. Will PC gaming die? No, not a chance in hell. But, if it wants to survive it must transform into something more controllable. Hey, we do live in a money-driven world, after all. And nothing is easier to put a price on that fun itself.
If somehow PC gaming (minus the MMORPG juggernaut, casual games, indie scene, mod scene, low-budget scene) dies, it will only be the death of console ports, and I somehow don't mind that. Strategy games will also always call PC gaming home. Sorry, but if the big five Publishers decided to stop making games for PC I don't think it'd make a damn difference.
You have a good point here. In fact the sooner the better. It will clear the path for a innovative company to give/sell the PC gamers what they want. Not yet another fucking shoot, puzzle, action screen wipe, OMG!! fake ass movie wannabe cutscene, p2p nintendo DS-ish fucking online pairing program.
These companies are old hat and the PC guys know it. Its time for something new as the gaming market has become ONE GIANT EXPLODING RED BARREL. Yeah i said it.....
I will always enjoy turn-based strategy and RPGs on the PC. They belong there, in my opinion, for many and varied reasons, including the complexity of the user interface and the availability of mods.
Each platform has its place. There's room for them all.
