You know lately if you've been paying attention to the news here, a lot of PC gaming stuff has been popping up. Now I'm not talking about actual PC games (though admittedly the issues do involve PC versions of games) but the quality of PC versions, their relation to consoles, and the attitudes of PC gamers.
Take the new Battlefield game coming out. For some reason there is this huge uproar about the quality of the PC version vs. the Console version. Console owners are whining about how the PC version is so much better, Dice telling everyone to shove it, PC gamers loving it and walking around like their... well you know.
And today I noticed a FarCry 3 story stating that the PC version is going to be superior to the console version. This is just one of the many types of stories that are floating around. All stories designed to stroke the ego of PC gamers, with console gamers being pissed off for some fairly ridiculous reasons.
FACT: PC games will always have superior visual and sound quality to console games. There is really only one reason you would need to support this, and that's that PC gaming has the advantage of having ever evolving hardware. It can constantly use state of the art technology right now, whereas consoles are closed off in a hardware sense and only evolve after the end of a console's life. You wouldn't expect an old vinyl record player to be able to output lossless audio like the kind you'd get out of a .wav file would you? So you can't expect consoles to output the kind of quality a PC with the latest tech can output. So in that regard, I can see the point devs like Dice have.
But where I'm having an issue is, who the hell cares? I'm about to make a radical generalization that is not at all true about every member of the group I'm generalizing, it's merely discussing an observation. Why does anyone care about stroking the ego of the PC crowd? They have to be the most entitled, elitist bunch of gamers most of us have ever come across and it's ALWAYS about the GRAPHICS with them. Why is it that so many articles lately have to make PC gamers feel better about the quality of their version of any game? As a PC gamer, you should know that even a shoddy port will look better on your gaming rig than on any console, yet for some reason this massive sense of entitlement raises up as if PC gamers are "owed" something and you have devs practically bottle feeding them and giving in to the temper tantrums.
I suppose the fact that, by comparison in a marketing sense, PC gaming is small next to consoles. Most of gaming devs develop for consoles, consoles have a hell of a lot more variety and options of games that will never appear on PC, devs fear piracy on PC more than they do on consoles, etc... So maybe PC only devs, and devs looking to move into that realm will do anything they can to keep what fanbase they have for their games. Of course, once you give an inch, people tend to take a mile, and that's where the sense of entitlement comes in.
Every article here that so much as hints at PC in even the smallest way is bombarded by PC fanboys down playing consoles and posting comment after comment about their rig and how it only cost them $200 more than a launch PS3 to have "teh bestest grfx evar" and how "PC's are a gen ahead of consoles." Seriously, if you have to keep saying it then I guess there must be something wrong with the games you're not playing on that PC, or you're trying to convince people that PC gaming is bigger than it is.
We get it, PC's are superior in hardware to consoles. Always have been, always will be. Anyone who doesn't get this fact has probably been living in a cave somewhere with their eyes shut, and their ears blocked. But if you're really into gaming, then you know 2 things. First, gaming isn't about the graphics. Graphics are the most superficial aspect of gaming. Take the sh*ttiest game in the world and give it the most photorealistic graphics possible, and you're left with a very polished, very "pretty" turd.
Second, console gaming is far larger than PC gaming and is where the real money is. Quite frankly, people will ALWAYS choose a convenience first. A console is built for everyone to have the exact same experience at a cheaper price than a PC, with years of never having to buy an upgrade to make your games only look better but not actually BE any better. It is for this reason devs make more games for consoles, and why the industry focuses on consoles to a much greater degree than PC's.
I'm sure this blog will be torn apart by innumerable PC fanboys once again talking about their rig, why if you do the calculations PC gaming is cheaper, throw in some reference to Steam, and accuse people of being to lazy to spend $600 to build their own "better than consoles" gaming PC. I don't really care. I'm just sick of the ego stroking PC gamers seem to need to have and the devs who bend over backwards to give it to them just because they can't be satisfied with already having the superior hardware.
I believe there is a word for someone who is clearly superior yet has to have everyone continuously acknowledge it and have everyone appease him/her for it. I don't know what it is right now, but if anyone does feel free to post it as a comment along with its definition.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
The big reason I stick to console is because of the online community being so large so most games don't die as fast like they do on Pc.
I play on Ps3 and it has a large community and i can always pop in a game thats at least 2 years old and find people to play with no problem.
"I'm sure this blog will be torn apart by innumerable PC fanboys once again talking about their rig, why if you do the calculations PC gaming is cheaper, throw in some reference to Steam, and accuse people of being to lazy to spend $600 to build their own "better than consoles" gaming PC. I don't really care. I'm just sick of the ego stroking PC gamers seem to need to have and the devs who bend over backwards to give it to them just because they can't be satisfied with already having the superior hardware."
So basically, you want people to come in here and parrot back to you your own sentiments and have a boo-hoo pity party about those big-bad PC bullies taking the spotlight away from the PS3 for once around here?
I'm not stroking anyone's ego, and about 3 devs try to do anything special to cater towards the PC audience these days. Even in that Far Cry 3 article, the developers are basically saying that they are concentrating on the console versions, and that there won't be much difference between PC and console. That means console port. I don't think I'm owed much, but they give barely a fraction of their attention to PC versions of games these days. Simple, stupid things like "Press Start to Begin" at title screens go a long way to showing just how little time was put into it.
What I'm starting to see are a load of bitter console fanboys who are getting more and more jealous because they're no longer the prettiest girl in town and people are starting to know it.
"They have to be the most entitled, elitist bunch of gamers most of us have ever come across and it's ALWAYS about the GRAPHICS with them."
It's never really about the graphics, any REAL pc gamer(not the imaginary one you make up in your head) will tell you it's about options, options to tweak the game to their liking.
"PC gaming is small next to consoles"
Factor in Download(which has a bigger profit margin than console sales), physical, Free to play, and Social network gaming, it account bigger than console sales, that's why EA just acquired Pop cap for 750milliion, and zynga just invested 1 billion into development into social media games
US: http://www.rockpapershotgun...
UK: http://www.rockpapershotgun...
"consoles have a hell of a lot more variety and options of games that will never appear on PC"
What type of game hasn't appeared on PC?
Do some real research, and actually try to write an objective counterpoint to pc gaming, instead of putting this dribble with little to no factual merit.
Ok I see your opinion and I understand that all these topics are flamebait but their is a reason why they are popping up more than ever, Pc's are now a lot more powerful than consoles.
As to your points
1)" ALWAYS about the GRAPHICS with them"
Sure I like playing my games in 1080p with my AA and 60fps but us pc gamers care about a lot more than graphics. We PREFER our mouse and keyboard as it allows us to play games without aim assist, we prefer our dedicated servers which dramatically decrease the amount of ping in servers and allow for higher player counts, we prefer having mods and modding communities that add content to our games and turn them into something amazing, take SC2 for example: http://www.youtube.com/watc...
2)"Second, console gaming is far larger than PC gaming and is where the real money is"
Wrong, If you count a gamer as someone who plays games then their are far more pc gamers and F2P games. F2P game stores are as valuable as console games. A much bigger percentage of a pc game sale goes to the developers if you choose digital distribution which helps fill in the numbers.
Their are also more people online on steam at any given time than that of xbox live.
3)"Quite frankly, people will ALWAYS choose a convenience first"
A lot of people prefer quality over convenience, That's like saying people will ALWAYS choose takeaways than go to a resteraunt.
4)"devs fear piracy on PC more than they do on consoles, etc... "
And devs fear used game sales on consoles more than they do piracy on PC's
At the end its your choice to support the platform you choose.
Gonna hit your point about graphics , pixel counters give us a bad name and usually just bragging for the sake of it.
Graphics are not the main attraction PC gaming as many brag about so i can understand where that comes from.
Main reason i play PC is for:
- Gameplay , the most important thing , some of the best PC gamers were never the peak of graphics they just played well. If they end up half assed ports like Dead Space 1 then the gameplay suffers.
- Better controls , actually choice of controls would be better but mice in FPS are technically superior its not an opinion. But i like controllers for other games such as 3rd person games like GOW3 , Uncharted , Mass Effect + Racing and Platformer games. Not having mice support on console is annoying and you can easily split the matches up based on peripheral aswell as game type.
- Dedicated Servers , Admin controlled to get rid of clowns / hackers which u can't do on console , they just run rampent. P2P is okay to have but not supporting optional dedicated servers for clans or public servers is frustrating.
- Cheaper games
- Better Investment in the long run
- More mature better community and teamwork is way better in games on PC with the exception of the usual e-jerks / trolls.
- You can do everything , e.g. stream music , msn , steam chat , and play online all at the same time
- Piracy is a problem for everyone , pirated console games come from the same place PC ones do and simply ripped to disc.
Graphics are an awesome bonus but not essential **glances at high end rig** thats not the point :P
5 years down the line i would quite happily play at 720p at 30fps if i could not afford an upgrade. Would still be playable even if not desirable.
But i guess what platform you choose is down to what the person wants in an entertainment system :)