Todays Generation and Computing

[Mediansoft]

Now this is hopefully not going to be to big of a rant and more of a documented OPINION about current generation gamers across the available platforms.

Lots of people in the modern world never used a C64 or a 486 ... they don't know and never used DOS, heck they place a gazillion shortcuts on the desktop and lots of em don't have a grasp on disk managment... all because of the spoonfeeding.. I own a cybercafe ... I started myself with C64.. games on audio tapes, amiga 500, 286/386/486/486/DX/Pentium era.... 3dfx ... back in those days you actually handled your pc and it was satesfying ... I got lots of youngh (15-25year olds) customers in my store here and they have no clue at all... most got their 360 and ps3 and think that's the pinnacle of technology... others use pc's but still really have no clue to be honest

Game studios go for the biggest market and the rest is history... properties like Unreal where the first was a true revelation...stepping outside for the first time on Na Pali from the wreckage of the Vortex Rikers marks one of the biggest "omg's" for me in gaming history.. that and when I booted up Incoming that was bundled with my 3dfx Voodoo 2 12mb card.. or the time I experienced Carmageddon 1 and Tomb Raider 1 for the first time on my 486. I kept playing games but honestly I don't see it anymore, I don't get awe's ... it's just a little more bump mapping here, shader version 36 there... tesselation whatever ... it doesn't matter... then they made Unreal Tournament.. it was PC focused and great.. the UI was great, the game was great; I still play it (usually instagib or bunnytrack though)... skip ahead and they consolified starting with Unreal Championship and then went full out console direction with Gears of War... I do for honesty matters have to say that Epic at least still tried with Unreal Tournament 3. But the console gamers spoke with their wallet and the current gen's wallet isn't on PC.

Second case. Morrowind. Awesome game. PC orientated, great interface and just like UT it's highly customizable ingame (change window sizes, positions etc). The got big with Morrowind and then as Epic did with Gears of War decided to cash in with Oblivion. Which in itself truth be said isn't a bad game. However it's no Morrowind. I'm not going to go in a flamebait war over leveled lists, repetition in dungeons and more ... and to their credit they at least allowed mods on the PC side and tried to support the PC community (like Epic with UT3). But again the wallets spoke and the console gamers triumphed. The interface was a lot clunckier then Morrowinds (adapted for console controller shoulderpads), they had the luck to be in the start of a console cycle so the graphics weren't that bad on PC either ... I hope Skyrim which is towards the latter part of a cycle won't have to sacrifice to much of that and let the PC crowd crank it up enough.

Third case. Dragon Age. Awesome game.. played it lots, nice PC orientated game, not the best of Bioware but its hard to beat their own masterpieces of years old. The interface was nice to work with and well it just was a good game period. The IP got big and .... they decided to cash in with DA2. Very console crowd aimed game... console controls, gui.. they made the combat faster and smoother .. I don't know if it still dice rolls like DA1.. Im guessing it does unless they skipped that as well). But the whole game has a very console feel to it that bothered me from 5 minutes in... I finished DA1, got all DLC's and then rebought it on steam with the Ultimate Edition (which EA pulled off steam to try and boost their own Origin app).

Now I can find more examples I'm sure but I'll take on of a game that did it GOOD. Ladies and gentlemen I present you Deus Ex Human Revolution. Followup of a great 2000 title Deus Ex. (from those golden Unreal engine titles era as Deus Ex and Thief). Now what they did here is how it should be done. Ill go check up on console vids of the game and PC vids. They actually ADAPTED the interace to both crowds. The console versions got the (for me) dreaded ring to select stuff, which ofc is used for easier and faster controller selections) BUT the PC crowd gets the standard Deus Ex style (and also Dragon Age 1 style) interface with the action bar at the bottom. Now THIS I can live with, I don't care what they do for the console gamers and cash in there BUT I don't want shoddy ports no more.. especially not by companies like EA, Epic and Bioware who got big on the PC gamer market long before consoles got the current gen's market penetration. I expect them to if they go multiplatform to at least provide the PC crowd with the game adapted for the higher performance and design the UI to maximize the PC's potential.

TLDR: Big name companies who got their roots deep in computing history shouldn't cash out on the console gamer and delivering shoddy ports just to adhere to the lowest common dominator in power and performance. Also the current gen pc user unfortuantly doesn't really know PC computing no more and look funny at you if you mention partitioning hard drives or hdd file managment.

[Deleted]

Lots of people never used a 486 or DoS? I'm probably the youngest computer forum regular here, and I grew up using a 386 running DOS.
My father even taught me all the commands!
And yes, I agree with you. I just skimmed through it and read the TLDR, though.

[Jazzhands]

I feel like this happened with Crysis 2. It was such a bad game. Story aside, they took a game that could have surpassed Crysis, one of the most beautiful games out there, and turned it into a shitty console game and ported it to PC. The graphics are still nice, but I feel like it could have been so much better. Developing it for console means they have very strict limits on the graphics, so PC gamers got the shaft. Instead of getting graphic sliders and such we just get a menu with "low medium high" ect, very disappointing. Recently though, I believe a mod was developed to address this, so hurray for the community fixing Crytek's shitty mistakes.

I also feel like I can contribute the nano suit change to it being adapted more to the console then PC. I loved the suit in Crysis, but in Crysis 2 it just felt... odd.

Oh, and due to it being a console game that ported to PC, there was no quick save. I played the game for maybe a half hour before I got pissed and quit.

Oh, and what happened to Prophet? I nearly quit right then and there.

Edit: After thinking about it, I can probably contribute the entire bad story to it being a console focused game. Being a sequel, to a game most console players wouldn't have played, it wouldn't have made much sense to continue the amazingly open ended story of Crysis. /sigh

[haxartus]

Consoles make money. That's the answer to everything. Consoles make money.
Unless Microsoft makes the next Xbox run on Windows, absolutely noting will change and the PC gamers will continue to be ignored.

[Deleted]

PC games suffer alot more from piracy. Its a fact.

[Mediansoft]

PC games suffer alot more from piracy. Its a fact.

I heared this argument before multiple times and in parts it's true. But it's not the sole reason for the many wasted potential ports we are getting and the lack of innovation.. And yes there was a time where I pirated a lot... going all the way back to the Amiga where I had over a thousand disks and only 2 games original. (Paperboy 2 and Deuteros) It was also something my dad guided me towards .. I remember getting Monkey Island 2 on 11 disks for my birthday (copied version). Piracy was huge on the amiga truth be told.

And yes during the earlier pc era (no internet yet) I had those "Twilight" DVD's through friends who went and got them in the Netherlands.. they were compilations of games and appz sold on the black market. Beyond that the power of the internet was forming and I downloaded hundreds of ISO's.. so Im perfectly guilthy of the pirating part myself. These days however I very very rarely download warez (and if I do it's mostly abandonware or really older titles not available on the current market)

Now I got over 300 steam games and doing my share towards the game industry.. will it be enough ? well 1 individual can't make changa .. but colelctivly Valve is making millions so something is going right ... its just that on consoles there making billions.

[Deleted]

I'm 22 and don't recall ever using a 486.

Well, it might just have been me using my fathers old computer too.
I'm 14, for those who don't remember.

[Bann]

I used a 486 when I was 16 at college in 1995, but most of the class room had pentuim 75s.