A Gamer Comes Full Circle2011-04-04 18:10 GMT
As you're probably not aware, I'm a console gamer by and large, but it's a stance I should probably clarify: I started off on "big boys games" back in '92 on an old 286 PC that my parents bought second hand, and games such as Lemmings, Armor Geddon and Stunt Car Racer sold me on the concept that, as far as gaming was concerned, PC was best. I should point out that I did have a NES back then but rarely played it beyond the Super Mario titles, and my "upgrade" to a 386 PC later that year condemed the lowly NES to that of novelty. Let's face facts: The PC had Doom. DOOM!
For years I scoffed openly at lowly console gamers getting sub-par ports of PC classics. (Who can remember the choppy, low detail SNES port of the aforementioned Doom?) While I did dabble in some console gaming, owning a Playstation, Dreamcast and latterly an original Xbox, the PC reigned supreme. Then came the next generation. The Xbox 360 took everything I loved about PC gaming: The rich, high definition graphics, the online connectivity, the first person shooters, and turned them into something a console was capable of. And, in the case of the interconnected, online experience, something it was not only capable of, but trumped the PC counterpart. That was it for me. With the rising price of keeping up-to-date with PC hardware (such as graphics cards that cost more than an entire console), and with the simplicity of popping in an Xbox game and knowing it'll be setup for the optimal experience right out of the box, my conversion to console gaming was complete.
I didn't miss the PC at all. Every game I wanted to play was right there on the Xbox, I even preferred first person shooters on the platform due to my far from unique disability. For a while I didn't even have a personal PC at home, although my Internet browsing suffered far too much for that to remain the case. But now...
Now I'm slowly starting to edge back towards the platform; coming full circle if you will. It started when a friend from work very kindly donated his "old" Geforce 8800 GTX to my cause and I found that I could actually play current generation games again. The novelty of achievements is starting to wear off, Steam is becoming a very attractive platform, and with console games consistently priced higher than that of their PC counterparts, the console veneer is starting to wear thin. I think it all started with Battlefield 3.
I am a massive Battlefield fan. I used to play "Baffy 2" with Vince and Empleh on a regular basis, and played the death out of 1943 and Bad Company 2 on the Xbox, so I was eager to hear any information available on the upcoming Baffy 3. Then came the kicker: 64 players on the PC, 24 players on consoles. Up until this point I'd never even considered the PC version due to my aforementioned disability, but Baffy is made for huge, sprawling levels, it's made for massive battles with many, many squads. 24 players in such environments would feel empty. Disability be damned (and it's not such an issue on Baffy games if you can get into a decent squad), I decided then that the PC version was for me. And then there's Kinect.
Kinect, when it was announced and subsequently launched, excited me not for the chance to stand in my living room flailing around like an idiot, but for the prospect of head tracking, akin to what you'd find TrackIR doing on the PC. Click the link back there and watch the video of TrackIR in action, it's long but worth it. I'll wait.
Done? OK, good. What I envisioned for Kinect was first person shooters no longer having a fixed point of view, of racing games where you can use the cockpit view and not be at a disadvantage over the external-view-using masses; but other than the head tracking rumoured for Forza 4, there's been no sign of it. No developers "looking into the idea", nothing. And with TrackIR's growing list of supported games... Score another one for the PC.
The final nail in the coffin, although I admit it's a big plus in a lot of respects, is the closed nature of the console platforms. Recently I was having a dilemma as to which version of Portal 2 to pre-order. Having played the first on PC I was swaying towards that option but couldn't quite make up my mind. Then I heard about Valve's offer whereby you could buy the PS3 version and get the PC version for free, however, due to Microsoft's closed system, no such deal existed for Xbox owners. Cloud saving is another one: Microsoft have had ample opportunity to introduce this as the killer Live Gold feature but have instead neglected it outright. These are Xbox examples, but you could easily turn it the other way: Poor cross-game connectivity on PS3, for one. And so my mind was made up there. The PC had won again.
Now, quite frankly, I'm wondering if that's it for me and the Xbox for this generation. It's been a fantastic ride while it lasted, but the PC is rapidly gaining favour at every turn and a lot of games even let you use an Xbox pad for fuck's sake! More and more I'm having to weigh up the difference between platforms when considering new games, and more and more the PC is coming out on top. I'll be keeping my Xbox, don't get me wrong, but as of now, for this generation at least, I fear it's no longer my platform of choice.
- Max
For years I scoffed openly at lowly console gamers getting sub-par ports of PC classics. (Who can remember the choppy, low detail SNES port of the aforementioned Doom?) While I did dabble in some console gaming, owning a Playstation, Dreamcast and latterly an original Xbox, the PC reigned supreme. Then came the next generation. The Xbox 360 took everything I loved about PC gaming: The rich, high definition graphics, the online connectivity, the first person shooters, and turned them into something a console was capable of. And, in the case of the interconnected, online experience, something it was not only capable of, but trumped the PC counterpart. That was it for me. With the rising price of keeping up-to-date with PC hardware (such as graphics cards that cost more than an entire console), and with the simplicity of popping in an Xbox game and knowing it'll be setup for the optimal experience right out of the box, my conversion to console gaming was complete.I didn't miss the PC at all. Every game I wanted to play was right there on the Xbox, I even preferred first person shooters on the platform due to my far from unique disability. For a while I didn't even have a personal PC at home, although my Internet browsing suffered far too much for that to remain the case. But now...
Now I'm slowly starting to edge back towards the platform; coming full circle if you will. It started when a friend from work very kindly donated his "old" Geforce 8800 GTX to my cause and I found that I could actually play current generation games again. The novelty of achievements is starting to wear off, Steam is becoming a very attractive platform, and with console games consistently priced higher than that of their PC counterparts, the console veneer is starting to wear thin. I think it all started with Battlefield 3.
I am a massive Battlefield fan. I used to play "Baffy 2" with Vince and Empleh on a regular basis, and played the death out of 1943 and Bad Company 2 on the Xbox, so I was eager to hear any information available on the upcoming Baffy 3. Then came the kicker: 64 players on the PC, 24 players on consoles. Up until this point I'd never even considered the PC version due to my aforementioned disability, but Baffy is made for huge, sprawling levels, it's made for massive battles with many, many squads. 24 players in such environments would feel empty. Disability be damned (and it's not such an issue on Baffy games if you can get into a decent squad), I decided then that the PC version was for me. And then there's Kinect.
Kinect, when it was announced and subsequently launched, excited me not for the chance to stand in my living room flailing around like an idiot, but for the prospect of head tracking, akin to what you'd find TrackIR doing on the PC. Click the link back there and watch the video of TrackIR in action, it's long but worth it. I'll wait.
Done? OK, good. What I envisioned for Kinect was first person shooters no longer having a fixed point of view, of racing games where you can use the cockpit view and not be at a disadvantage over the external-view-using masses; but other than the head tracking rumoured for Forza 4, there's been no sign of it. No developers "looking into the idea", nothing. And with TrackIR's growing list of supported games... Score another one for the PC.The final nail in the coffin, although I admit it's a big plus in a lot of respects, is the closed nature of the console platforms. Recently I was having a dilemma as to which version of Portal 2 to pre-order. Having played the first on PC I was swaying towards that option but couldn't quite make up my mind. Then I heard about Valve's offer whereby you could buy the PS3 version and get the PC version for free, however, due to Microsoft's closed system, no such deal existed for Xbox owners. Cloud saving is another one: Microsoft have had ample opportunity to introduce this as the killer Live Gold feature but have instead neglected it outright. These are Xbox examples, but you could easily turn it the other way: Poor cross-game connectivity on PS3, for one. And so my mind was made up there. The PC had won again.
Now, quite frankly, I'm wondering if that's it for me and the Xbox for this generation. It's been a fantastic ride while it lasted, but the PC is rapidly gaining favour at every turn and a lot of games even let you use an Xbox pad for fuck's sake! More and more I'm having to weigh up the difference between platforms when considering new games, and more and more the PC is coming out on top. I'll be keeping my Xbox, don't get me wrong, but as of now, for this generation at least, I fear it's no longer my platform of choice.
- Max