Nothing too surprising, though the console remark with regards to gaming made me chuckle. I agree, but there are a lot of people working very hard to avoid dealing with that reality.
by Anonymous Coward writes:
on Tuesday March 02, 2010 @03:52PM (#31334404)
And it will never be reality. There's a lot of people who prefer to play with PC. I do too, although I do own all PS3, Wii and 360. They're nice to play with friends or while on sofa. But otherwise I rather play on computer, especially strategy and first person shooter games. Then theres also the added benefit of mods, freeware, shareware and indie games. PC is and will stay strong on gaming and Linux developers should really work towards bringing it there too.
Yup.
I gave up PC based gaming a long time ago. Each flashy new game release seems to require a very expensive upgrade of hardware too.. With consoles the hardware is fixed, guaranteed (more or less) to be identical for a given console, and therefore the experience will be much the same for each user, and game developers are forced to push the hardware rather than upping the specs.
With consoles, the market is also fixed, against indies. Sony and Nintendo have erected substantial entry barriers against a company publishing its first title on their consoles, even on PSN or Wii Shop/DSi Shop.
You gave it up long enough ago that you weren't around for most modern games being designed with Xbox360/PS3 specs in mind anyway, thus ensuring that any graphics card bought in the lifetime of those systems will cover every game out there sans Crysis.
The last graphics card I bought was two and a half years ago, and it sill plays every new game at a solid 60fps with everything turned on high. This is one advantage to having consoles being powerful. It doesn't make pc gaming a constant horse race as it was in the early 2000's.
Yup. I gave up PC based gaming a long time ago. Each flashy new game release seems to require a very expensive upgrade of hardware too.
Anecdote:
My parents have a 2001-era PC. Pentium 4. It had an extra gigabyte of RAM added ($30) for 2 total, and the videocard was replaced when it died with a $99 model from circuit city.
So, $120 in upgrades over 9 years. It plays Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft, and other games at decent frame rates at 1280x1024. (Although I don't know what else my brother runs on
Ironically, the Xbox was the thing that made me able to finally switch to Linux completely. Why bother running Windows for gaming when all the good games are for consoles anyway?
What's a good recent game that is PC only? The only ones I can think of are World of Warcraft, which I need to stay away from anyway, and Starcraft II, which isn't out, but I wouldn't buy anyway because of the obvious "We can't hear your complaints over the sound of our money" attitude by Blizzard.
Why bother running Windows for gaming when all the good games are for consoles anyway?
When you can hook up a mouse for a FPS, or mouse and keyboard for a RTS game (Starcraft 2, just around the corner!), you can talk about all the good games being available for consoles.
Something like this [amazon.com]? I haven't tried it, and the reviews look variable....but it fits what you were talking about (mostly). Frankly, since all the current consoles have usb connections, I don't see why some game vendors don't just start supporting usb mouse and keyboard for stuff....there's nothing technical in the way, that I know of.
I haven't tried it, and the reviews look variable....but it fits what you were talking about (mostly).
Given the reviews I'd say "somewhat" rather than "mostly", and even then only for the FPS games really. Still doesn't help if Blizzard doesn't release Starcraft for consoles.
I don't see why some game vendors don't just start supporting usb mouse and keyboard for stuff....there's nothing technical in the way, that I know of.
My understanding is that at least one of the console makers (I forget if it's Sony o
Commander Keen is a DOS game, so it should run fine in DOSBox. Half Life 2 apparently [winehq.org] runs perfectly in wine. As games get older, the likelihood of them running in Wine becomes greater (and as far as I can tell, they focus more on popular games, so stuff like WoW and HL2 work faster than less popular games).
According to all the latest reports, there was no truth in any of the
earlier reports.
This was good (Score:3, Interesting)
Despite the occasional snobbish answer, this was a good Q and A. Thanks Slashdot! You guys aren't just Microsoft bashing and astro turfing after all!
Re:This was good (Score:2)
Nothing too surprising, though the console remark with regards to gaming made me chuckle. I agree, but there are a lot of people working very hard to avoid dealing with that reality.
Re:This was good (Score:4, Insightful)
And it will never be reality. There's a lot of people who prefer to play with PC. I do too, although I do own all PS3, Wii and 360. They're nice to play with friends or while on sofa. But otherwise I rather play on computer, especially strategy and first person shooter games. Then theres also the added benefit of mods, freeware, shareware and indie games. PC is and will stay strong on gaming and Linux developers should really work towards bringing it there too.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This was good (Score:4, Insightful)
With consoles the hardware is fixed
With consoles, the market is also fixed, against indies. Sony and Nintendo have erected substantial entry barriers against a company publishing its first title on their consoles, even on PSN or Wii Shop/DSi Shop.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This was good (Score:4, Informative)
The last graphics card I bought was two and a half years ago, and it sill plays every new game at a solid 60fps with everything turned on high. This is one advantage to having consoles being powerful. It doesn't make pc gaming a constant horse race as it was in the early 2000's.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup. I gave up PC based gaming a long time ago. Each flashy new game release seems to require a very expensive upgrade of hardware too.
Anecdote:
My parents have a 2001-era PC. Pentium 4. It had an extra gigabyte of RAM added ($30) for 2 total, and the videocard was replaced when it died with a $99 model from circuit city.
So, $120 in upgrades over 9 years. It plays Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft, and other games at decent frame rates at 1280x1024. (Although I don't know what else my brother runs on
Re:This was good (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm just about there myself. And with the flaky hardware (I'm looking at you ATI), I can't get a decent game running for long anyway.
[John]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Stalker series, Crysis, just off the top of my head.
I'll admit that for every good PC-only game there are 3 good console-only games...for different consoles of course.
Re: (Score:1)
Why bother running Windows for gaming when all the good games are for consoles anyway?
When you can hook up a mouse for a FPS, or mouse and keyboard for a RTS game (Starcraft 2, just around the corner!), you can talk about all the good games being available for consoles.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I haven't tried it, and the reviews look variable....but it fits what you were talking about (mostly).
Given the reviews I'd say "somewhat" rather than "mostly", and even then only for the FPS games really. Still doesn't help if Blizzard doesn't release Starcraft for consoles.
I don't see why some game vendors don't just start supporting usb mouse and keyboard for stuff....there's nothing technical in the way, that I know of.
My understanding is that at least one of the console makers (I forget if it's Sony o
Re: (Score:2)
The exceptional PC game almost never slips away entirely.
The latest compatibility update for 32 and 64 Bit Win 7 had fixes for Half-Life. KOTOR.
Reader Rabbit. Carmen San Diego.
I kid you not.
You'll find Commander Keen on Steam, Fallout on Gog.com.
The PC gaming keyboard is still very much alive: Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard [amazon.com] [$36]
Re: (Score:2)