Hate to say it....but consoles are winning

This is just my impression, purely emotional and anecdotal yet I will include examples of why I think the way I do.

I have been PC gaming since the early 90's when I discovered Star Wars X-Wing and could not believe the screenshots on the back of the box. As all old school gamers should recall the screenshots on the box always look 300x better than the actual game, but I digress. The point is the graphics, sound, gameplay was all leagues above the Sega Genesis games I was playing at the time.

So anyway, my point is I have been around a while and have been an exclusive PC gamer since 1993'ish. Consoles and the PC were always very different from one another with a few standouts....game UI's, first person WASD/mouse play, and depth.

So now I am finding more and more, much to my displeasure, that the closer consoles become to being PC's...the closer PC's are to becoming consoles. Quite the paradox.

My impressions on this:

UI

It seems to me every cross platform release has a console UI. PC gamers will know what I am talking about. I love PC game menus I can click through with ease, but typically I find myself having to shift through a ton of crap that is obviously meant for a controller.

Controls and 1st vs. 3rd person

All games coming out now seem to have this weird 3rd person spin in a circle controller combat. It is just awkward playing this crap with a keyboard and mouse. These new release seem to mostly contain control meant to be played with a controller. Historically the only PC gaming you needed a controller for was sports gaming. I always had my madden controller, other than that the thing collected dust. The most recent and prevalent exceptions to this off the top of my head would be Farcry 3 and Bioshock Infinite. Farcry 3 had the terrible console UI, but featured pretty good PC control.

Depth

We've all heard the term dumbed down and it has been beaten to death. Not much to say here other than I agree, if the game is released on both consoles and the PC you can bet your arse it is going to be watered/dumbed down to the lowest common denominator.....the console.

To sum it up, if a game is released on the PC and console you can bet your arse it will be designed to use a controller, have a crap console UI, and lack the depth of a PC exclusive. The problem is the majority of big titles these days seem to be released on both platforms, we are seeing less PC exclusives than ever. It is too costly for dev's to make a PC version and a console version that are not 99% copies of one another, so it seems this trend is here to stay and get worse with time.

Take from it what you want, just needed to rant more than anything. Seriously disappointed with the state of things.

Honestly I agree with this in some ways. It is truly disgusting how some developers treat the PC and that is why I will never buy their games for more than $5 on sale (usually less than that, I often find myself paying $2). Having a better looking version of a shitty console game isn't good enough for me. Only if a game has a legitamtely good PC version will I ever consider spending more.There is hope though. We have awesome games like Planetside 2 on PC and if you enjoy strategy games you have a ton of great options to choose from as well. Witcher 3 should also be fantastic on PC :)

I've pc gamed since the early 80's, and consoles have always had the better games, and the better gaming experience. the pc elitist crowd are newb gamers who don't know any better.

Its not consoles fault, its the console audience that is to blame.

Except that PC troubleshooting requires you to scour the internet for solutions and sometimes crying for help on forums. Unless you have the patience for that, and assuming that there are people willing to help you, and assuming your problem isn't so unique that nobody else has the same problem...you're better off gaming on a console. And we haven't even talked about the more cryptic aspects of PC gaming, which require you to read up hardware benchmarks to find out which is the more 'value for money' gfx card. GTX 780 and GTX Titan comparison comes to mind. One is 90-95% the power of the other for half the price. And after all that, read up about Anti-Aliasing (which includes MSAA, FXAA, TXAA, SMAA), Anisotropic Filtering, V-sync, Tesselation, HDR Lighting and how these settings affect your visual quality versus the power consumption.

You do all that....then you're ready for some PC gaming. The problem is that Hermits don't know better, and think that it's all part and parcel of gaming, while it actually doesn't have to be.

You make it seem like reading benchmarks is a bad thing.

lol so much horseshit in TC's words

consoles have always won, there is nothing new here.

lol there is no fix for when a console game has issues. console kids are forced to pray and hope devs patch it up. while on the other hand, pc gamers usually just fix it themselves, at a very scary speed. take dark souls on pc for example, the game was patched the same day it released lol

Well the gaming industry is so mainstream now a days that you have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. You have to make things simple enough that an average 6 year old can understand.

An average PC gamer (who games on a PC dedicated to core PC gaming) is an enthusiast compared to the average console gamer.

So to summarize what you said, stick to consoles if you're stupid. Go pc gaming if you have a brain and know how to use it. Gotcha.

Reading benchmarks is essentially the same thing as doing research. Since when is research ever a bad thing? But are you saying that we are all required to do research just because it's not a bad thing?

It's important to make the distinction between what could be a personal interest, versus what is fundamentally required. People who spend a lot of time reading up on hardware, be it consoles or gadgets, all have one thing in common - they are as enthusiastic about the hardware itself as the features the hardware can perform. Some people just want to remove the hardware aspect from the equation and worry about the games.

I just hope more games will come out on pc. These companies basically go where their stuff sells and there is much less of a threat as far as piracy on consoles....... These companies are trying to lock their stuff up. A console is basically the same as a pc with the user having less control. It's the same hardware and OS for that matter.

You make it sound the the PC version of Skyrim was free of problems. I bought the PC version and it was F'ed up at release. Trees were blue in color and monsters were flying about in the sky. I remember getting stomped into the sky by a giant. You have to make relative comparisons here

Not true. Just because consoles don't offer the same level of adjustment that PC games too doesn't make them any less interesting...

I don't think you understood what I meant by this sentence. PC's are becoming more like consoles in that the games are being designed for consoles, not the PC. So basically you are stuck playing console games with your PC that can do SO much more. In other words....we agree and you just didn't know it.

Or, you can look at it another way. Issues on consoles are universal to everyone, and will be detected and patched up. Issues on PC can be so specific to a small group of users that searching is required. That part I personally would prefer to avoid if I can

PC games are dumbed down not because of consoles but because most PC's are low spec computers

True however if there is a problem that affects a game, on the PC I can deal with it rather than sit twiddling my thumbs waiting for Sony and MS to run the patch through their certification processes.

Man tc sure loves making PC gamers look bad.

pc's are dying....however it is not console's faults, it is the tablet.

Well, at least you had the decency to tell me in the first sentence so I could write off the rest as worthless before I started reading it.

Desktop PC's, maybe not but tablets have tolled the bell on the laptop.

I have to agree with that. But that's assuming that you are savvy enough to fix the code yourself, or hope that someone else savvy enough has the exact same problem as you. And this can really be a problem when playing non-mainstream games. The best example I have was when I bought Baldur's Gate II Enhanced Edition recently.

A simple problem: Can I or can I not use my save file from the original BG2 in BG2:EE? Pasting my old save files in the BG2:EE folder didn't work.

I scoured the internet. Nobody ever asked this question before. So I was unlucky in that nobody who had the knowledge bothered trying it. I eventually solved that problem. It appears that you can. You must change the save file extension from upper case to lower case. That's some really cryptic shit right there!! I don't know about you, but I hate this aspect of the PC. And in this case, it appears not many people bought the EE edition and there weren't that many solutions to problems flying around.

Even though I kind of agree with you, what kind of exclusives do you speak of? Because in my recollection PC has never been known as the exclusive dominator.

Another gen, another claim of PC losing or dying.

And like all those other gens that claim is made, PC ends up winning at the end with the most aaa/aa titles (exclusive and total) and the best gfx and performance with the best and brightest competative scene to date.

LMAO! do you honestly believe this, or is this just system war schtick? honest question.

22 Years of gaming on a pc have plyed through the widest range of genres of games have played the best pc games the best console ports have been able to fix any problem I have ever had and it is the strongest now than it has neen in a while...the pc may get some botched console ports (less than ever nowadays) but the far worst thing is that consoles are getting all the hassle of pc's without none of the benefits of an open platform.

To me that is much much worse.

It's just his way of saying that it's his opinion, not fact. And do you really think that what people say here are anything other than an impression or an anecdote? Sales figures are anecdotes. Hardware failures are anecdotes. Platform preferences are pretty much impressions. Graphical benchmarks are....yup...anecdotes. Collective anecdotes lead to conclusive deductions.

most common problems doing a 5 minute search are easy enough to fix. This is not the 90's with not internet accessibility

Also i will gladly take 10-20 minutes find a fix for BF4 rather waiting weeks for an official patch to be released. Also i will gladly take the 5-10 minutes it will take me to change a faulty component on pc rather sending it for repair like consoles and waiting weeks to get it back

Also nowdays you dont need to be hardware expert or anything to read a 10 minute article to understand what gpu's offer the best value ( let alone nowdays as long as you are shopping in the $150-300 category you cant go wrong no matter what you choose even if your choice is slightly worse than another choice )

Finally long are the days you have to manually download patches. Now days is as streamlined as consoles are

So no pc gaming is not the inaccessible medium for gaming that was in the 90's early 00's ( not that it was that inaccessible but whatever ) nor is difficult to get into unlike some consolites think here

Damn dude that sounded fun...Imma gonna read some tech wiki articles now thanks to you!

Gotta figure my next build too.

I would love to own PC,ps4 and xbox but right now i can only focus on one platform and if i could afford ps4 and/or xbox i would have to wait for the exclusives and there is like 1-2 exclusive game per year that is worth my time.

Every multiplatform title will look and play better on PC so there is no reason for me to get a PS4 right now,or ever.

How do you even define winning?...Last time i checked everybody can play the same game

wow, what a load of bullshit

Yes and no. I have BF4 on the 360, and it's just stupidly broken. The solution? None. Wait. Hope the devs decide to fix their shit.

How many console games will allow you to transfer a save game from the late 90's original to the current (2012?) remake? I can't remember any. That's not a normal situation even on the PC.

If that's a problem, then start over with with the new version.

As for menus..... I don't see a big difference either. There wasn't really a clear standard for menus on PC games. Some were good. Some were bad like their console brethen. Heck. Quake 1 and Quake 2 didn't even use a mouse on the menu screens.

Yes whereas console troubleshooting is almost non-existant by the end user. You have to wait for shit to be fixed by developers. That goes for both the software and the hardware.

@clyde46:

dev follow the money, console gamers a ready to pay 60$ for a legit new game .pc gamer are not .

I'm just gonna put it out there but I prefer owning a console for gaming over a PC for 3 reasons.

1. My console OS's doesn't stuff as much as my PC or get viruses and I hate losing my saves when I reformat for reasons other then gaming.

2. The games they make now like OP said don't utilize the full potential of PC power.

3. Being in the computer industry and using a PC allot, I just can't motivate myself to play games using mouse and keyboard, I want a change.

Winning what?

Certain games do launch at $60 on PC, and PC gamers do buy them. Case in point: Diablo 3.

Furthermore, the $60 price tag, is attributed to the royalty fees charged by the console manufacturers, which comes in at around $7-10 IIRC.

@lundy86_4:

so where is gta5 for pc ?

Your points about UI are kinda dumb. What's this "ton of crap" that you have to click through that wasn't on PCs all along? Even Crysis 1 had a menu and UI similar to what is in a modern console game

Controls? Just stick a bloody 360 pad in to play third person games like I do and switch back to mouse for whatever else. PC isn't one or the other, it's part of the reason I like the system

Your points about depth are dumb too, if stuff is being made for a lower denominator and therefore that's bad then how do consoles win if they're the shitty lower denominator it's being made for? The PC version is still better, even if by a small amount sometimes, for it's flexibility and suite of options yet the consoles win because of that? Doesn't make sense

What a load of horse shit

Non existent for the exact reason he said, devs follow where the money is because console owners pay more for games.

If it came out for PC it would only be like 40 euro compared to the 70 I paid for the PS3 version

Where is Star Citizen on consoles? Where is the Total War series? Starcraft? ARMA? DOTA2? Football Manager?

Are you noticing the sheer idiocy of your statements yet?

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There is a viable market on all systems.

Winning at what? Being second class gaming platforms?