We shold steer away from the "which is best" discussion...
The OP's queston was whether PC gaming is worth the effort...
This is always going to be an opinion, but as an owner of both, I find no real downside to PC gaming other than the cost of a kick ass machine. But there is no requirement to have a kick ass machine, my last build lasted 3 years.... Only recently did i have to start configuring new releases on Medium...
It is only my personal preference that had me fork out for a new rig.
I think the real answer is that it is not nearly as much bother as might you think to be a PC gamer...
I think the op is largely ancillary to the thread at this stage. He made one post and then didn't come back.
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!", the truth is that there's huge overlap between the platforms. And that overlap is necessary because the games industry can't work as much by exclusives as it used to. In real terms, whichever of the three platform we're comparing (PS3, 360, PC) that you choose, you're not missing out on many of the big hitters. After that it's a case of preferences.
Good lord, you enjoy playing the victim. The only person in this thread saying "the PC is doomed!" is you, and you say it over and over and over. We get it already.
Sorry about that, I couldn't hold it in anymore.
More along the lines that "The consoles have the vastly superior games collection", and people have definitely been saying that in this thread.
I can't say I consider myself a "victim" as such. I've pretty much always said that the platforms are largely down to what you're looking for.
Good lord you need to calm down.
Funny, saying that "people are saying consoles have the vastly superior games collection" sounds a lot different than
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!"
Tell you what, I'll calm down as soon as you stop randomly playing the doom card (as you have in this thread, at least twice, for no apparent reason). Okay?
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
0
CorehealerThe ApothecaryThe softer edge of the universe.Registered Userregular
We shold steer away from the "which is best" discussion...
The OP's queston was whether PC gaming is worth the effort...
This is always going to be an opinion, but as an owner of both, I find no real downside to PC gaming other than the cost of a kick ass machine. But there is no requirement to have a kick ass machine, my last build lasted 3 years.... Only recently did i have to start configuring new releases on Medium...
It is only my personal preference that had me fork out for a new rig.
I think the real answer is that it is not nearly as much bother as might you think to be a PC gamer...
I think the op is largely ancillary to the thread at this stage. He made one post and then didn't come back.
And i'm pretty sure we answered all his questions by now.
I agree. But our trade-off appears to be cheaters (a la Modern Warfare 2).
I say that having never touched MW2 on a platform, or MW1 for that matter. I guess people cheat, but not "hey I'll use this program to automagically aim at your head" type of way.
Actually I've run into numerous cheaters on the 360, more on the PC but in the lion's share of PC games there are dedicated servers.
A server with active admins is the death of cheaters.
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!", the truth is that there's huge overlap between the platforms. And that overlap is necessary because the games industry can't work as much by exclusives as it used to. In real terms, whichever of the three platform we're comparing (PS3, 360, PC) that you choose, you're not missing out on many of the big hitters. After that it's a case of preferences.
Good lord, you enjoy playing the victim. The only person in this thread saying "the PC is doomed!" is you, and you say it over and over and over. We get it already.
Sorry about that, I couldn't hold it in anymore.
More along the lines that "The consoles have the vastly superior games collection", and people have definitely been saying that in this thread.
I can't say I consider myself a "victim" as such. I've pretty much always said that the platforms are largely down to what you're looking for.
Good lord you need to calm down.
Funny, saying that "people are saying consoles have the vastly superior games collection" sounds a lot different than
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!"
Tell you what, I'll calm down as soon as you stop randomly playing the doom card (as you have in this thread, at least twice, for no apparent reason). Okay?
Try quoting the rest of the post too. It's called Hyperbole, and in the context of what else I was saying, I thought it was pretty clearly so.
If not, then fine, cut the first half of that sentence. "All the good games go to consoles." Is a refrain I've seen plenty in this thread, and that it's not worthwhile getting a PC to play games because the games go to consoles.
subedii on
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited May 2010
I will say that sometimes building a computer can suck. But when it doesn't suck, it's so good.
I wish that really was true. I would love to play Bayonetta, but it doesn't really look like there's ever going to be a PC version of that. And it's not uncommon for the PC versions of games not to come out until months later.
I have an xbox360 just for bayonetta
Bayonetta and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Because you own like 6 copies of Dishwasher, right?
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!", the truth is that there's huge overlap between the platforms. And that overlap is necessary because the games industry can't work as much by exclusives as it used to. In real terms, whichever of the three platform we're comparing (PS3, 360, PC) that you choose, you're not missing out on many of the big hitters. After that it's a case of preferences.
Good lord, you enjoy playing the victim. The only person in this thread saying "the PC is doomed!" is you, and you say it over and over and over. We get it already.
Sorry about that, I couldn't hold it in anymore.
More along the lines that "The consoles have the vastly superior games collection", and people have definitely been saying that in this thread.
I can't say I consider myself a "victim" as such. I've pretty much always said that the platforms are largely down to what you're looking for.
Good lord you need to calm down.
Funny, saying that "people are saying consoles have the vastly superior games collection" sounds a lot different than
Despite cries of "OMG It's dying all the good games go to consoooooollleeeesss!!"
Tell you what, I'll calm down as soon as you stop randomly playing the doom card (as you have in this thread, at least twice, for no apparent reason). Okay?
Try quoting the rest of the post too. It's called Hyperbole, and in the context of what else I was saying, I thought it was pretty clearly so.
If not, then fine, cut the first half of that sentence. "All the good games go to consoles." Is a refrain I've seen plenty in this thread, and that it's not worthwhile getting a PC to play games because the games go to consoles.
Yet somehow none of them said PC games are dying, which you said loud and clear for no apparent reason (twice). There's nothing wrong with saying PCs have games, but there's no need to make yourself into an indignant repressed minority over it.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
Yet somehow none of them said PC games are dying, which you said loud and clear for no apparent reason (twice). There's nothing wrong with saying PCs have games, but there's no need to make yourself into an indignant repressed minority over it.
Again, hyperbole. I'm sorry I wasn't literal enough for you, but so far I don't think anyone else has really mistook what I was trying to say, or gotten so angry about it for that matter.
To clarify, things that I was expecting people to take away from my post:
- Choice of platform comes down to preference, and there's huge overlap between the 3 main platforms.
Things I did not expect people to take away from my post:
- Being a PC gamer makes you "a repressed minority".
Yet somehow none of them said PC games are dying, which you said loud and clear for no apparent reason (twice). There's nothing wrong with saying PCs have games, but there's no need to make yourself into an indignant repressed minority over it.
Again, hyperbole. I'm sorry I wasn't literal enough for you, but so far I don't think anyone else has really mistook what I was trying to say, or gotten so angry about it for that matter.
To clarify, things that I was expecting people to take away from my post:
- Choice of platform comes down to preference, and there's huge overlap between the 3 main platforms.
Things I did not expect people to take away from my post:
- Being a PC gamer makes you "a repressed minority".
I should mention that it wasn't just this post, you tend to bring up that "hyperbole" a LOT in a bunch of other threads I've read you in. I don't think you realize that randomly sarcastically saying the PC is doomed when nobody's saying the PC is doomed is kinda your defining character trait now, and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's annoying and you can make your points a lot better without it.
I don't think you realize that randomly sarcastically saying the PC is doomed when nobody's saying the PC is doomed is kinda your defining character trait now.
It is? I usually find his posts fairly helpful and sensible. Huh, guess I was wrong.
The last time I tried building my own PC it took me a week.
And every second of it was awesome, admit it.
Okay, so it's not for everyone.
No, it wasn't. I just kept thinking 'Man, if I didn't decide to build this myself I'd be playing shit on it already'.
Careful, you're treading dangerously close to heresy there! I mean, how could you not enjoy being hunched over for several hours a day for a whole week, your kitchen table (or perhaps a desk) entirely consumed by boxes, plastic wrap, computer components and a eight small, identical dozen screws? That's better than drugs for most normal gamers.
The last computer I built was killed by an electrical surge (bad wiring in my own apartment, but I doubt my own craftsmanship helped). I was in the middle of exams and papers, thought about it for about a minute, and decided, "Fuck this noise, I just want a gaming computer, and I don't have ten or fifteen or however many hours to put the parts together properly."
To those who can do it with a smile, you are the modern gamer equivalent of the blonde, beautiful 1950s housewife who can do it all and never lose the spring in her step, and I salute you for it. That being said, I am definitely not one of you.
Maybe we just played with Legos a lot as kids, because thats about how hard it is to assemble a modern PC. The drag is researching the parts before you buy to get the best bang for the buck.
Except with legos, screwing up doesn't leave you with a cloud of smoke, a long sequence of error messages about compatibility, overheating chipsets, or a framerate way worse than you were expecting. And while you're playing with legos, I'm guessing you've never had the thought, "Oh, man, I hope this red brick isn't a dud, I really don't want to have to wait a week or two for a replacement lego to come in if it is."
In other words, I don't think you an screw up when it comes to legos. If you can, the penalties are whatever you impose on yourself. Make no mistake, you can screw up--or be screwed with--when assembling a PC, as this thread as repeatedly demonstrated.
There's something to it, yes, but it is not legos.
I don't think you realize that randomly sarcastically saying the PC is doomed when nobody's saying the PC is doomed is kinda your defining character trait now.
It is? I usually find his posts fairly helpful and sensible. Huh, guess I was wrong.
He says helpful and sensible things once he gets the requisite dooooooooom out of the way.
The last time I tried building my own PC it took me a week.
And every second of it was awesome, admit it.
Okay, so it's not for everyone.
No, it wasn't. I just kept thinking 'Man, if I didn't decide to build this myself I'd be playing shit on it already'.
Careful, you're treading dangerously close to heresy there! I mean, how could you not enjoy being hunched over for several hours a day for a whole week, your kitchen table (or perhaps a desk) entirely consumed by boxes, plastic wrap, computer components and a eight small, identical dozen screws? That's better than drugs for most normal gamers.
The last computer I built was killed by an electrical surge (bad wiring in my own apartment, but I doubt my own craftsmanship helped). I was in the middle of exams and papers, thought about it for about a minute, and decided, "Fuck this noise, I just want a gaming computer, and I don't have ten or fifteen or however many hours to put the parts together properly."
To those who can do it with a smile, you are the modern gamer equivalent of the blonde, beautiful 1950s housewife who can do it all and never lose the spring in her step, and I salute you for it. That being said, I am definitely not one of you.
Maybe we just played with Legos a lot as kids, because thats about how hard it is to assemble a modern PC. The drag is researching the parts before you buy to get the best bang for the buck.
Except with legos, screwing up doesn't leave you with a cloud of smoke, a long sequence of error messages about compatibility, overheating chipsets, or a framerate way worse than you were expecting. And while you're playing with legos, I'm guessing you've never had the thought, "Oh, man, I hope this red brick isn't a dud, I really don't want to have to wait a week or two for a replacement lego to come in if it is."
In other words, I don't think you an screw up when it comes to legos. If you can, the penalties are whatever you impose on yourself. Make no mistake, you can screw up--or be screwed with--when assembling a PC, as this thread as repeatedly demonstrated.
There's something to it, yes, but it is not legos.
you can screw up assembling a computer, but it isn't easy to do unless you literally aren't trying to assemble it correctly
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but for me the most appealing aspect of PC gaming is universal backwards compatibility.
I can still play Warcraft II, Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, etc on the same PC that I use to play Shattered Horizon, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Guild Wars, etc.
Sure, for some games I have to download an extra app for compatibility reasons (DOSBox), but these apps are usually free and community driven.
But with consoles, if you want to play all of your old games you either have to keep your old consoles, repurchase them for your new ones (VC, PSN, XBLA), or fight the endless battle that is modding/home brew.
There are an endless amount of instructions online on how to assemble a computer, if you don't know how to assemble a computer and didn't have the forethought to get one of said guides, maybe PC gaming isn't for you!!
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but for me the most appealing aspect of PC gaming is universal backwards compatibility.
I can still play Warcraft II, Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, etc on the same PC that I use to play Shattered Horizon, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Guild Wars, etc.
Sure, for some games I have to download an extra app for compatibility reasons (DOSBox), but these apps are usually free and community driven.
But with consoles, if you want to play all of your old games you either have to keep your old consoles, repurchase them for your new ones (VC, PSN, XBLA), or fight the endless battle that is modding/home brew.
there are some old Windows games that just do not work, though
see: Battlezone
I know there is a community launcher people made to get it to work on Vista, but I haven't been able to get it to work on Windows 7 at all
The last time I tried building my own PC it took me a week.
And every second of it was awesome, admit it.
Okay, so it's not for everyone.
No, it wasn't. I just kept thinking 'Man, if I didn't decide to build this myself I'd be playing shit on it already'.
Careful, you're treading dangerously close to heresy there! I mean, how could you not enjoy being hunched over for several hours a day for a whole week, your kitchen table (or perhaps a desk) entirely consumed by boxes, plastic wrap, computer components and a eight small, identical dozen screws? That's better than drugs for most normal gamers.
The last computer I built was killed by an electrical surge (bad wiring in my own apartment, but I doubt my own craftsmanship helped). I was in the middle of exams and papers, thought about it for about a minute, and decided, "Fuck this noise, I just want a gaming computer, and I don't have ten or fifteen or however many hours to put the parts together properly."
To those who can do it with a smile, you are the modern gamer equivalent of the blonde, beautiful 1950s housewife who can do it all and never lose the spring in her step, and I salute you for it. That being said, I am definitely not one of you.
Maybe we just played with Legos a lot as kids, because thats about how hard it is to assemble a modern PC. The drag is researching the parts before you buy to get the best bang for the buck.
Except with legos, screwing up doesn't leave you with a cloud of smoke, a long sequence of error messages about compatibility, overheating chipsets, or a framerate way worse than you were expecting. And while you're playing with legos, I'm guessing you've never had the thought, "Oh, man, I hope this red brick isn't a dud, I really don't want to have to wait a week or two for a replacement lego to come in if it is."
In other words, I don't think you an screw up when it comes to legos. If you can, the penalties are whatever you impose on yourself. Make no mistake, you can screw up--or be screwed with--when assembling a PC, as this thread as repeatedly demonstrated.
There's something to it, yes, but it is not legos.
you can screw up assembling a computer, but it isn't easy to do unless you literally aren't trying to assemble it correctly
As I already mentioned, it's not just limited to your fault either. You can entirely get bad motherboards/GPUs/CPUs/Hard Drives--in reality, pretty much every component you order in a PC can arrive DOA, down to things like SATA cables. The likelihood isn't high, in fact it's quite low--though it varies widely based on anecdotal evidence, anyway--it still exists.
Every time I've built a PC, I've had at least one component with a problem that would haunt me later. First time around, a fan for a chipset on my ASUS motherboard screeched like a dead cat before stopping. The good old days...
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but for me the most appealing aspect of PC gaming is universal backwards compatibility.
I can still play Warcraft II, Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, etc on the same PC that I use to play Shattered Horizon, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Guild Wars, etc.
Sure, for some games I have to download an extra app for compatibility reasons (DOSBox), but these apps are usually free and community driven.
But with consoles, if you want to play all of your old games you either have to keep your old consoles, repurchase them for your new ones (VC, PSN, XBLA), or fight the endless battle that is modding/home brew.
there are some old Windows games that just do not work, though
see: Battlezone
I know there is a community launcher people made to get it to work on Vista, but I haven't been able to get it to work on Windows 7 at all
Ok, so maybe it should read ALMOST universal backwards compatibility, but you get the idea.
Well, like I said, I did everything right with my PC build and STILL had problems with both faulty hardware and a bafflingly non-obvious BIOS problem. The ideal may be a snap but there are still risks involved.
Well, like I said, I did everything right with my PC build and STILL had problems with both faulty hardware and a bafflingly non-obvious BIOS problem. The ideal may be a snap but there are still risks involved.
Yes, but going back to the original question of "is it worth it?" I definitely think it is regardless of whether or not I build it myself.
The fact of the matter is I need a computer anyway - for work, school, correspondence, music, etc...
Why wouldn't I just spend a couple 100 extra bucks to throw in a kick ass video card and take advantage of all of that processing power to play some games?
Hell, even if you take it to best buy or your local computer guru and have him do it for you, I still think it's WORTH it for the reason I mentioned above.
There are an endless amount of instructions online on how to assemble a computer, if you don't know how to assemble a computer and didn't have the forethought to get one of said guides, maybe PC gaming isn't for you!!
This.
It's not rocket science.
There's only so many new parts that can be "plugged in and mounted".
Well, like I said, I did everything right with my PC build and STILL had problems with both faulty hardware and a bafflingly non-obvious BIOS problem. The ideal may be a snap but there are still risks involved.
Yes, but going back to the original question of "is it worth it?" I definitely think it is regardless of whether or not I build it myself.
The fact of the matter is I need a computer anyway - for work, school, correspondence, music, etc...
Why wouldn't I just spend a couple 100 extra bucks to throw in a kick ass video card and take advantage of all of that processing power to play some games?
Hell, even if you take it to best buy or your local computer guru and have him do it for you, I still think it is WORTH it.
Since we're dealing in specific circumstances.
I'm actually in a very similar boat. I'm a grad student, which means I don't have to have a computer--as there are plenty available for my use on campus for free--but without one, I am much worse off. However, I am also much worse off if I don't have one I can bring to class. So, as much as "you need to have a internet-capable PC anyway" applies to me, so does "you need to have a laptop". Perhaps more so, since I can't drag one of the university's computers into the classroom.
So, I have a laptop. A cheap one. I'd get a netbook, which is even cheaper, except my vision isn't want it used to be. Now, as it happens, if I want to turn this laptop into a gaming machine...even a modest one, well, I can't really. If I had wanted to buy a reasonable gaming laptop, I can say with some confidence it would have cost more than an additional $200 (that being said, I got my laptop on the cheap).
That, and portability matters to me. I don't really need to carry my Xbox 360 around with me everywhere but I do kind of need to do that for my working machine. And gaming laptops--ones that don't suck, anyway--tend to be huge and not without reason. A lot of people, quite reasonably, call these things "portable computers", rather than laptops.
That's one circumstance that, while certainly not applicable to everyone, is extremely common within gamers in my demographic anyway. PC gaming has a lot of merits, but the whole "Ah, you might as well drop $200/$300/$400 more anyway and get a gaming machine!" isn't necessarily true always. I personally paid the extra so I could enjoy PC games, but that might not be for everyone.
You don't need a gaming laptop to play games. Any laptop with a discrete graphics card will do okay.
Actually, this has a lot to do with the kind of games you want to play--but then again, that would also determine whether you prefer PC or console gaming.
Didn't read entire thread, but if you enjoy FPS games, there is no way you can have a satisfactory experience using a gamepad sitting on a couch once you are good with a mouse/keyboard on a good PC. I've been playing online FPS since Doom via modem (well, no mouselook there) and then Quakeworld, it's by far my favourite genre, I've tried Halo and COD on Xbox and it's frustratingly hard to aim. For me, the incremental cost of the video card isn't much more than a console and I enjoy tinkering with PC hardware.
As far as building goes (knock on wood) my last 2 have worked from first boot without issue, and I enjoy opening the boxes and building it myself, it's fun and only takes a couple hours. Putting together a PC now is ridiculously easy compared to say 15-20 years ago (remember IRQ's and memory management in DOS?). Things can go wrong of course, DOA's happen, BIOS settings can be tricky if you are trying to tweak and don't know what you are doing (auto settings should be fine in this case). I build a new PC roughly every 3 years, and do maybe one upgrade during the machines lifetime. I built an [email protected] w/ 2GB RAM, 8800GTS640 in April 2007, and in August 2008 upgraded to a [email protected], 4GB RAM and a GTX280, it's still going strong, no plans to upgrade until cheap 32nm quad/hexacores and SSDs are available.
There are an endless amount of instructions online on how to assemble a computer, if you don't know how to assemble a computer and didn't have the forethought to get one of said guides, maybe PC gaming isn't for you!!
This.
It's not rocket science.
There's only so many new parts that can be "plugged in and mounted".
While I tend towards the "it's just plug and play" position, I can see where some people would be thrown off when they wonder why their new compy running Windows XP doesn't recognize more than 2 gigs of ram, or what the hell a voltage rail is and how many they really need to get that video card running without causing power problems all over the place.
There are an endless amount of instructions online on how to assemble a computer, if you don't know how to assemble a computer and didn't have the forethought to get one of said guides, maybe PC gaming isn't for you!!
This.
It's not rocket science.
There's only so many new parts that can be "plugged in and mounted".
While I tend towards the "it's just plug and play" position, I can see where some people would be thrown off when they wonder why their new compy running Windows XP doesn't recognize more than 2 gigs of ram, or what the hell a voltage rail is and how many they really need to get that video card running without causing power problems all over the place.
QFT...
The process is "almost" plug and play...
But there are a few grey areas that can trip you up...
Screwing up the thermal paste application and CPU cooler fit can be a hell of a lesson...
The most difficult part of building my own PC the first time was not knowing how much pressure was necessary to get a stick of RAM locked in. I was nearly paralyzed with worry that I would break it by pushing too hard or something.
Turns out it's more durable than you'd think, and my worry was all for naught. As long as you pay attention and make sure the notch is where it should be.
The most difficult part of building my own PC the first time was not knowing how much pressure was necessary to get a stick of RAM locked in. I was nearly paralyzed with worry that I would break it by pushing too hard or something.
Turns out it's more durable than you'd think, and my worry was all for naught. As long as you pay attention and make sure the notch is where it should be.
Yeah, that can be a bit scary if you aren't sure. The new standard is just one side of each RAM slot has a switch to click into. The other one can be aftermarket coolers and screwing in the back plate/how much pressure, although in the last few years it's gotten a lot better with the spring loaded screws with a predefined stop position so you can't overtighten.
PSU requirements for video cards is another one. Basically, if you aren't a nerd that enjoys and has the time to research components (or find a list of components from a site/forum you trust), I can see the potential downsides. When I am going to build a new PC I spend/waste hours researching each component because it is interesting to me.
Now, those pins on the edge of your motherboard for case USB 2.0 or the power switch or the audio out? Those can be hell without tweezers, especially since chances are you already put your motherboard into the case.
While doable for me personally, the experience as a whole is not enjoyable, which is why I don't intend to repeat it again. Additionally, not having to worry about as many problems down the line--from DOA components or bad hard discs or whatever is thrown at me--gives me more time to actually play. Granted, it's not a lot of time by any means--but it does seem to happen at the worse possible times, so reliability is important to me.
I can see why people who enjoy troubleshooting problems like this would feel differently, though.
I'm not sure if it has been mentioned yet, but for me the most appealing aspect of PC gaming is universal backwards compatibility.
I can still play Warcraft II, Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, etc on the same PC that I use to play Shattered Horizon, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Guild Wars, etc.
Sure, for some games I have to download an extra app for compatibility reasons (DOSBox), but these apps are usually free and community driven.
But with consoles, if you want to play all of your old games you either have to keep your old consoles, repurchase them for your new ones (VC, PSN, XBLA), or fight the endless battle that is modding/home brew.
there are some old Windows games that just do not work, though
see: Battlezone
I know there is a community launcher people made to get it to work on Vista, but I haven't been able to get it to work on Windows 7 at all
The 1.5 BZE beta release works like a charm on Win7 64bits with an ATI card, running on 1440x900 without stretching.
Google it, it's really damn good.
Yeah, I had some help from my brother who has assembled a few of his own but it was stupidly easy. Less than an hour of work and if I'd had to do is solo it still would have been well under two. It took far longer installing the OS/updating and loading up all the programs I wanted.
Posts
I think the op is largely ancillary to the thread at this stage. He made one post and then didn't come back.
Funny, saying that "people are saying consoles have the vastly superior games collection" sounds a lot different than
Tell you what, I'll calm down as soon as you stop randomly playing the doom card (as you have in this thread, at least twice, for no apparent reason). Okay?
And i'm pretty sure we answered all his questions by now.
Actually I've run into numerous cheaters on the 360, more on the PC but in the lion's share of PC games there are dedicated servers.
A server with active admins is the death of cheaters.
Try quoting the rest of the post too. It's called Hyperbole, and in the context of what else I was saying, I thought it was pretty clearly so.
If not, then fine, cut the first half of that sentence. "All the good games go to consoles." Is a refrain I've seen plenty in this thread, and that it's not worthwhile getting a PC to play games because the games go to consoles.
Bayonetta and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Because you own like 6 copies of Dishwasher, right?
Right?
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Yet somehow none of them said PC games are dying, which you said loud and clear for no apparent reason (twice). There's nothing wrong with saying PCs have games, but there's no need to make yourself into an indignant repressed minority over it.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Again, hyperbole. I'm sorry I wasn't literal enough for you, but so far I don't think anyone else has really mistook what I was trying to say, or gotten so angry about it for that matter.
To clarify, things that I was expecting people to take away from my post:
- Choice of platform comes down to preference, and there's huge overlap between the 3 main platforms.
Things I did not expect people to take away from my post:
- Being a PC gamer makes you "a repressed minority".
I should mention that it wasn't just this post, you tend to bring up that "hyperbole" a LOT in a bunch of other threads I've read you in. I don't think you realize that randomly sarcastically saying the PC is doomed when nobody's saying the PC is doomed is kinda your defining character trait now, and I just couldn't take it anymore. It's annoying and you can make your points a lot better without it.
It is? I usually find his posts fairly helpful and sensible. Huh, guess I was wrong.
Except with legos, screwing up doesn't leave you with a cloud of smoke, a long sequence of error messages about compatibility, overheating chipsets, or a framerate way worse than you were expecting. And while you're playing with legos, I'm guessing you've never had the thought, "Oh, man, I hope this red brick isn't a dud, I really don't want to have to wait a week or two for a replacement lego to come in if it is."
In other words, I don't think you an screw up when it comes to legos. If you can, the penalties are whatever you impose on yourself. Make no mistake, you can screw up--or be screwed with--when assembling a PC, as this thread as repeatedly demonstrated.
There's something to it, yes, but it is not legos.
He says helpful and sensible things once he gets the requisite dooooooooom out of the way.
you can screw up assembling a computer, but it isn't easy to do unless you literally aren't trying to assemble it correctly
I can still play Warcraft II, Deus Ex, Duke Nukem, Commander Keen, etc on the same PC that I use to play Shattered Horizon, Borderlands, Starcraft II, Guild Wars, etc.
Sure, for some games I have to download an extra app for compatibility reasons (DOSBox), but these apps are usually free and community driven.
But with consoles, if you want to play all of your old games you either have to keep your old consoles, repurchase them for your new ones (VC, PSN, XBLA), or fight the endless battle that is modding/home brew.
there are some old Windows games that just do not work, though
see: Battlezone
I know there is a community launcher people made to get it to work on Vista, but I haven't been able to get it to work on Windows 7 at all
As I already mentioned, it's not just limited to your fault either. You can entirely get bad motherboards/GPUs/CPUs/Hard Drives--in reality, pretty much every component you order in a PC can arrive DOA, down to things like SATA cables. The likelihood isn't high, in fact it's quite low--though it varies widely based on anecdotal evidence, anyway--it still exists.
Every time I've built a PC, I've had at least one component with a problem that would haunt me later. First time around, a fan for a chipset on my ASUS motherboard screeched like a dead cat before stopping. The good old days...
Ok, so maybe it should read ALMOST universal backwards compatibility, but you get the idea.
but I really want to play Battlezone again
And yeah, there's definitely homework to be done. To just up and one day say "how I maek PC?" and then just start ordering parts... yeah, not good.
And here I thought I was the only one.
Yes, but going back to the original question of "is it worth it?" I definitely think it is regardless of whether or not I build it myself.
The fact of the matter is I need a computer anyway - for work, school, correspondence, music, etc...
Why wouldn't I just spend a couple 100 extra bucks to throw in a kick ass video card and take advantage of all of that processing power to play some games?
Hell, even if you take it to best buy or your local computer guru and have him do it for you, I still think it's WORTH it for the reason I mentioned above.
It's not rocket science.
There's only so many new parts that can be "plugged in and mounted".
Since we're dealing in specific circumstances.
I'm actually in a very similar boat. I'm a grad student, which means I don't have to have a computer--as there are plenty available for my use on campus for free--but without one, I am much worse off. However, I am also much worse off if I don't have one I can bring to class. So, as much as "you need to have a internet-capable PC anyway" applies to me, so does "you need to have a laptop". Perhaps more so, since I can't drag one of the university's computers into the classroom.
So, I have a laptop. A cheap one. I'd get a netbook, which is even cheaper, except my vision isn't want it used to be. Now, as it happens, if I want to turn this laptop into a gaming machine...even a modest one, well, I can't really. If I had wanted to buy a reasonable gaming laptop, I can say with some confidence it would have cost more than an additional $200 (that being said, I got my laptop on the cheap).
That, and portability matters to me. I don't really need to carry my Xbox 360 around with me everywhere but I do kind of need to do that for my working machine. And gaming laptops--ones that don't suck, anyway--tend to be huge and not without reason. A lot of people, quite reasonably, call these things "portable computers", rather than laptops.
That's one circumstance that, while certainly not applicable to everyone, is extremely common within gamers in my demographic anyway. PC gaming has a lot of merits, but the whole "Ah, you might as well drop $200/$300/$400 more anyway and get a gaming machine!" isn't necessarily true always. I personally paid the extra so I could enjoy PC games, but that might not be for everyone.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
GT: Tanky the Tank
Black: 1377 6749 7425
Actually, this has a lot to do with the kind of games you want to play--but then again, that would also determine whether you prefer PC or console gaming.
As far as building goes (knock on wood) my last 2 have worked from first boot without issue, and I enjoy opening the boxes and building it myself, it's fun and only takes a couple hours. Putting together a PC now is ridiculously easy compared to say 15-20 years ago (remember IRQ's and memory management in DOS?). Things can go wrong of course, DOA's happen, BIOS settings can be tricky if you are trying to tweak and don't know what you are doing (auto settings should be fine in this case). I build a new PC roughly every 3 years, and do maybe one upgrade during the machines lifetime. I built an [email protected] w/ 2GB RAM, 8800GTS640 in April 2007, and in August 2008 upgraded to a [email protected], 4GB RAM and a GTX280, it's still going strong, no plans to upgrade until cheap 32nm quad/hexacores and SSDs are available.
While I tend towards the "it's just plug and play" position, I can see where some people would be thrown off when they wonder why their new compy running Windows XP doesn't recognize more than 2 gigs of ram, or what the hell a voltage rail is and how many they really need to get that video card running without causing power problems all over the place.
Ka-Chung!
Ka-Chung!
QFT...
The process is "almost" plug and play...
But there are a few grey areas that can trip you up...
Screwing up the thermal paste application and CPU cooler fit can be a hell of a lesson...
Yeah, that can be a bit scary if you aren't sure. The new standard is just one side of each RAM slot has a switch to click into. The other one can be aftermarket coolers and screwing in the back plate/how much pressure, although in the last few years it's gotten a lot better with the spring loaded screws with a predefined stop position so you can't overtighten.
PSU requirements for video cards is another one. Basically, if you aren't a nerd that enjoys and has the time to research components (or find a list of components from a site/forum you trust), I can see the potential downsides. When I am going to build a new PC I spend/waste hours researching each component because it is interesting to me.
Now, those pins on the edge of your motherboard for case USB 2.0 or the power switch or the audio out? Those can be hell without tweezers, especially since chances are you already put your motherboard into the case.
While doable for me personally, the experience as a whole is not enjoyable, which is why I don't intend to repeat it again. Additionally, not having to worry about as many problems down the line--from DOA components or bad hard discs or whatever is thrown at me--gives me more time to actually play. Granted, it's not a lot of time by any means--but it does seem to happen at the worse possible times, so reliability is important to me.
I can see why people who enjoy troubleshooting problems like this would feel differently, though.
The 1.5 BZE beta release works like a charm on Win7 64bits with an ATI card, running on 1440x900 without stretching.
Google it, it's really damn good.
People insist in bringing it up as if you had to do it every day or something.