PC Games looking up?

News.com story. I hope it is more then a blip!

http://news.com.com/PC+games%2C+once+down%2C+show+signs+of+rebound/2100-1043_3-6178289.html?tag=nefd.top

Xbox360 is hated by default because of Microsoft. Playstation 3 is overpriced. Wii is just..... eugh.

Not surprising, really.

Well I doubt it. With all the good (and even most of the mediocre) developers switching to consoles I don't see it happening. Spore is likely to be the last of the great PC games. Like Stewart Campbell said 8 years ago, PC owners are the new Amiga owners.

I don't know, PC's will overtake consoles pretty quickly this time around spec wise. Only needs 3-4 good PC games to come out in one year to satisfy me. And at the moment a new PC seems like a better deal than any of the consoles, even if it costs a little extra.

The simple fact is that there are WAY too many games in existence. Back in the 80's/90's it was so much better because the market wasn't so saturated. Same goes with music :).

Unfortunately, specs don't make good video games. In fact there's quite a solid argument to be made to the contrary, namely that the best selling console at the moment happens to be the one with the worst specs by far.

The only problem with that is that it's unlikely we'll see 3 or 4 PC games this year, much less any that are actually any good. Let's break the list down:

1) Spore (hopegully).
2) Lord of the Rings Online.
3) Pirates of the burning sea.
4) Dragon Age (if we're lucky).
5) A bunch of primarily XBox 360 ports.

So unless you're a huge fan of MMO's or XBox360 games (in which case you'd probably have one already) life as a PC gamer is going to suck (if Spore doesn't come out, this year is looking to be the first year since 1982 that I haven't purchased a game for my computer). Let's compare with the Wii:

1) Mortal Kombat: Armageddon.
2) Mario Party 8.
3) Transformers: The Game.
4) Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
5) Alien Syndrome.
6) Guitar Hero III.
7) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
8) Penny Arcade Adventures.
9) And hundreds of classics for the Virtual Console.

A diverse selection of good games, and this for the console that arguably has the least software available of the three.

How do you figure that? Back in the 80's I used to buy at least 2 games a week for the C64! In the 90's 2 a month for the Amiga wasn't uncommon. These days I'm lucky if I get 2 a year for the PC.

to add to the PC list.

6) HL2 Episode 2 (unless it goes Duke Nukem Forever on us)
7) Combat Mission: Shock Force (OK, most people don't care about realistic war games)
8) Theatre of War (Just released, another wargame)
9) Armed Assault (Been out in Europe for awhile though)

Not the most ecletic mix I'll agree, but for the stuff I like to play the consoles don't compare.

Then again, I agree that PC games are going to go the Amiga route.

FD, check your facts:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/releases.php

More games released / due in April on PC than on any other platform.

For all of Spring, only outdone by PSP, by 1 game.

Now, I'll admit that many of those PC games might well be dull, uninspired sims, sequels, or otherwise, but the same will be true of some of the games on the other platforms.

To add specifics to the list, SEGA Rally, Crysis (it's on the above list for '07, and arguable whether it's a game or engine, but still), Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Unreal Tournament 3, Hellgate:London, MotoGP '07, BioShock, TR: Anniversary, etc.

Now we can trim that list based on "stuff that's any good" (according to critical review), or "stuff that I want", or "stuff that's original", or "stuff that's only on PC", but it is *not* true to say that the number of games available is limited.

I might agree with you that it is a diminishing list, or that the range is limited in terms of game types, or that the choice of great games on [insert console of choice, probably Wii] is better. But not that there is an absurdly limited list.

It just depends on what kind of games you like. There are plenty of good ones coming out. And in the past year there were some really nice releases too.

Stalker
Medieval 2
GTR 2
Company of Heroes
Test Drive Unlimited (Ported from Xbox360)
Oblivion + Knights of the nine + Shivering Isles
Jade Empire (ported from Xbox)
FEAR

BTW FD, its obvious that you like Nitendoey and more casual type games, so its no surprise that you don't like commercial PC games much.
Those are the ones I bought in the last few months that were released in the past year on the PC.

The PC will always be the number one games platform, thats never going to change, the games are more detailed, have more depth, and are generally more adult than the vast majority of console games, most people consider PC Gamers to be older and thus as a demographic need more detail and more adult content in their games. While consoles are aimed at a demographic that includes 7 and 8 year old's, Even metal Gear solid was tested on under tens, even tho the game looks or look amazing, the fact that sony and all major console manufacturers and developers still test their products on under 10's is a huge giveway about what they think of their customers.

I actually feel sorry for Consoles, they are time locked, from the day of release until the day they get shoved on Ebay or binned, unable to do anything other than what they were hardwired to do.

Meanwhile the PC is more like a gaming swiss army knife, flash games, online adventures, full 3D down to 2D and old school retro games, the PC has it all, Hell a good PC can even emulate 90% of consoles with the current crop being the only exceptions to the rule and even they wont last long till and emulator is out for them.

No one should go by in store sales, which is what these news sites use as a guide, the PC and the internet have been evolving for over 10 years, and the way games are sold has been evolving as well, most PC games are now sold online, and these figures are not counted in "YouPCStore's Top 10" then only use their own figures.

Things like steam have been around for years in many different guises, while the console market has only just started to catch up, while they do, the PC is constantly moving on to the next big thing, in the end the PC is the flag ship cutting a path for the consoles to follow, that's never going to change.

The above is my opinion and is based on my 28 years of experience as being a gamer, a computer owner and a console owner, as well as a developer and a customer, some of you may not agree, and that's your privillage. but this is what I think.

Is it even that now? If I had to guess (which I do) which platforms were shifting the most new software each month I'd be tempted to plumb for the PS2 or the DS/GBA before the PC.


For the minority who have the very latest hardware - everyone else has to make do with lesser visuals or suffer framerate issues, assuming the games even run on the machine they bought a whole six months ago. (Ungentlemanly exaggeration, there.)


You mean boring.


This hasn't been true since the PlayStation grabbed the club demographic. I think the average age of a gamer today is around thirty and, whatever the exact figure, all of the industry knows it (even Ninty). Does the PlayStation pad look like it was designed with ten year olds in mind? Think about what you are saying at least.


This used to be the best thing about consoles, because it made them reliable. They're actually getting more PC-like as time goes by and, in my less than humble opinion, less appealing as a consequence... the console magic died the first time a game got patched over Live!


Sure, but that versatility comes at a price -- it's not like you get it for free, even if the emulators cost nothing.


Hmmm now, where did Live! spring from again? And does the PC have the equivalent of the WiiMote? The (lovely) openness of the PC does much to undermine standardisation and that makes certain types of innovation tough for a lot of the PC players -- I suspect you'll see innovation bred elsewhere and migrate to the PC via Microsoft buyouts. It's the only company in a position to standardise anything on the PC.


Ooohh! Me! ME!

> And does the PC have the equivalent of the WiiMote?

YES!

http://blogs.msdn.com/coding4fun/archive/2007/03/14/1879033.aspx

(I've got to give this a try someday)

He means. A wiimote that is standardized and which many games are designed to use.

We are going to see several devides breaking in here. Back in the day, the WAY BACK day. Radio shows, TV shows, and Movies were much alike. Many TV shows were older movie series, many movies were based on Radio shows and so on.

In many ways, these mediums all followed the same standards. Over time, the people began to realize that some things were better suited to one platform. Serial shows were best on the TV, music and talk ruled the Radio waves, gone were the days of the Radio Drama. And Movies no longer got endless amounts of sequels, in favor of stand-alone films that were more free to develope characters.

Today, we are starting to really see this split. You have Casual games, which are taking over the Wii and a large section of the PC market. And you have the 'Expirence' games. Games which attempt to absorb the player into a new world for hours on end.

Games that try to capture both markets don't tend to do well, with few exceptions... Mostly exceptions that are deep, but facilitate short play.. Think.. The SIMs or A handheld RPG. As times goes on, these will obviously devide into completely separate markets.

Additionally, you have the consoles and the PC. Consoles are a lot like the movies. It is best suited to finite systems. You have to tear yourself out of one state of mind and focus into the game or game system. While systems like the Wii will ultimately be super fast, and likely, will be as simple to start up and play as flicking on the PIP and playing a tiny version of bejewled on your HDTV with the same remote that you change the channels with. The PS3/Xbox360 style systems will still require a separate controler, and changing over to some other system.. It is these that will give us holodeck/Virtual Reality type content.

Most of the high-end market will shift to these stand-alone systems. If you watched Star Trek, the Holodeck programs are like console games. They don't work on the displays of the rest of the ship, you can't just grab a datapad and play them. However, you can play games on a datapad. The datapad games are what the PC's games will morph into. And the Wii is a whole new concept.. I expect that the PC itself will no-longer exist one day. It wouldn't be needed. We'll either have implants that enable us to use all the functions a PC would allow us, or our homes and cars and other places will offer us those same functions without the box. So that whole segment will meld into the Wii segment, which is just 'other devices' with PC style games on them with other control structures.

People seem to think it is the Wii style systems which will give us virtual reality.. It isn't.. The Wii is all about flipping the channel to 'input' when nothing is on and playing a few rounds of golf, or even less active games. The Wii is one step closer to having that kind of function built into the TV itself.

Of-course... Ultimately all of these will combine again.. When you can have full sensory input without a device, there will no-longer be a need for separate places to go to enjoy a holographic world.. You'll just have a multiplayer game in your head.. Or walk down the street playing the latest RPG like a kid with a GBA... Only there is no device at all.

I can get radio online, and listen to music on my Digital Cable. I can watch movies on my HDTV at fantastic quality, and movies are getting more and more sequels... I've even heard of some podcast dramas...

Actually, there are no emulators for the past crop either, save some PS2 emulators which just about play a few games badly on PC's costing ten times more than a brand new PS2.


And about the same price to replace them as buying a cutting edge graphics card, leaving aside processor upgrades, memory upgrades, hard drive upgrades, PSU upgrades, motherboard upgrade..


Oh right. I didn't realise you couldn't buy console games online.

The Wii does not have the worst specs; it has the strangest specs. Its efficiency is a really great opportunity still waiting to be used for its maximum potential. The question is whether that will get anywhere...
(If not, I'm still looking forward to a hacked Wii working as a streaming media client).

PC games will go up, with the more innovative titles such as Spore. Half-Life 2 is getting a lot of popularity among XBox people, as well.
I, for one, do not mind too much about the 360 or Wii (assuming it ever gets some game releases) being ahead. The 360 is evidently very much like a Windows PC to build games for, so when a big developer that also doesn't suck builds something for PC or 360, there is a good chance it will end up on both.

I, for one, still certainly prefer PCs for games. For one thing, I don't have to pay money on top of my Internet bill to play anything online. Then there's how I am quite freely able to apply unofficial modifications to games :)
Oblivion on the PC, for example, looks way better than on consoles because when it's installed on your PC you have the power to apply that soupy horizons fix. (And to drag the draw distance way higher than the in-game controls allow). On the other hand, there is some stuff that just plain works better on consoles. The problems is certain developers just don't get it, building console games better suited to PCs and PC games better suited to consoles.

Well, you'll never play great games Super Paper Mario, Spores, or a decent rendition of Resident Evil 4 on the PC nor will you ever play the Total War games, or big name MMORPGs on the console. Depends on what you feel like playing. Both have good stuff. Its just that getting a high end PC to get the full graphic "experience" cost more.

Except statistically it hasn't been the number one games platform since 2000. Since then profits for PC games have been in steady decline, while overall games have been going through the roof. Do the math.

Actually they use numbers published by special interest groups like the ESA and ELSPA, which includes sales figures from their members (so certainly Steam, Real Arcade and Garage Games are counted - probably more).

Well you're dead wrong there. I'd love to be able to sit down and waste a whole day playing a good strategy game. Unfortunately all I have to chose between is Yet Another Civilization (a game whose principles and fundamental design hasn't changed much since 1991), and Galactic Civilizations II (which isn't terribly different). Just look at that other "What are you playing now" thread if you want some indication about the massive amount of awesome PC games being played out there. I mean Freecell? Come on!

Yes, and for the most part, several years ago on the XBox360. Spoken like a true Amiga owner! Only someone with the true Amiga owner mentality would think that getting games a year or more after it's release, is a sign of a healthy platform. Seriously, Jade Empire was released how long ago for the XBox?

francesco's Oblivion Mod is amazing, about 500mb to download though :)

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=268&comment_page=1