Why PC Gaming Can Suck

There are many things that have been used to play games but the longest lasting gadget of course is the PC. The PC has been here since the 1980s and has been used to play many many games however with so many things changing and games getting better the PC can truly suck.

[Pandamobile]

Oh look, another article written about PC gaming by a console gamer.

[N4GAddict]

Yeah, I enjoy PC gaming...

[AndrewRyan]

This article is stupid, the author is obviously using a PC from the stone age with crappy specs if he is having this many problems. Honestly, he is complaining about RAM usage? You only need a minimum of 2GB ram! What the hell is this guy using? 1gb of DDR 300mhz? Honestly, I am using 4GB DDR3 1333mhz and I have never had a problem with any game. Not only that but he mentions that PC's need constant upgrades? Not true, if someone bought a 9800GT right now they could use it for years, sure they wouldn't be able to play games on maximum, but it would still be better then any xbox 360 game that is coming out, this goes for other parts aswell.

In conclusion. This article is stupid.

[Fishy Fingers]

"sometimes PC’s can go so high in quality that they are better than consoles."

^Genius.

[xtremexx]

@Pandamobile

actually i barely play my console, i have spent most of my time on the computer since starcraft 2's release

Also if you read the article then you would see that i also wrote the good things about it aswell

[Pandamobile]

Still a retarded article.

[ExplosionSauce]

Is Starcraft II the first major PC release this year?
It feels like it's been a while since I've played a major non-multiplatform game on PC.
Most of the time I find myself just buying games on console. Except for flash based games and other small indie titles.

[Arnon]

You barely play your console because of StarCraft II's release, which was about a week ago. Oh yeah. That's some heavy PC playing.

[Corepred4]

i don't mind pc gaming but i think the reason i think badly of it and think only nerds play it is because of guys like pandamobile, conloles and lolconsoles. With their holyier(sp?) than thou attitude.

[zag]

Yeah same deal though I wouldn't call Starcraft or World of Warcraft ground breaking games.

They weren't new or ground breaking when they came out years ago.

It would have been better to have said ground breaking games like Dune II, Ultima Online and the first CD based game Myst, that played music off the CD itself.

PC hardware at the moment has panned out again, where buying something for $200 still lets you play everything new anyway with decent frame rates.

Be hard to get a PC game that would kill the newest hardware these days.

I reckon next year PC gaming will kill the consoles once some new games etc start coming out, you can see all the Game Devs have been waiting for the hardware to play catch up now it's just a matter for the software side to come out.

PC gaming never dies just waxes and wanes, where as console gaming can die once you can't push the hardware anymore and can't come up with any new ideas.

[evrfighter]

"actually i barely play my console"

what a coincidence, I barely play my consoles also. There's actually nothing that even looks remotely interesting coming out for consoles.

You're also saying that because you played starcraft 2 this week, you're to be considered as a pc gamer and your opinion counts as such?

ummm lol? In the end you're just a console gamer that played starcraft 2. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

[akiraburn]

@xtremexx, hey man, I thought I would chip in my two cents here. There are a few few suggestions I would like to make about your article and presentation to perhaps improve it and to get more people to enjoy it. First off, I'm not trying to be rude or offensive with any of this, but the headline is misleading and sounds like another article meant to trash/bash on "X" gaming platform. You could have titled it something more along the lines of, "The Ups and Downs of Being a PC Gamer", or "A Look at PC Gaming Today". It's not worth the 7 to 10 extra hits if all you are doing is getting people angry with you and your site.

Second, provide more content for your article to go on. What you provided isn't necessarily bad, but it could use more to it. Include factual references, more pictures, and more game information. Like, on my side of things as a loooong time PC and console gamer, I can understand some of your points in both good and bad, but there is a lot more to expand on there. For this article, you could have touched on PC gaming of the past, as well as the future. Like including a back catalog of games worthwhile to check out which most modern PCs should be able to handle without needing an additional massive video card or extra RAM, but also upcoming game's specs which you may need new hardware for if you are interested in them.

Anyway, that's just my suggestions here. Judging off your article, I don't think your intention was necessarily to "bash" PC gaming, but the title made many readers believe so. I think also that your sentence structure and professionalism could use a bit of work. If you really want to write and have people take your opinion articles seriously, I think those would all be good steps in the right direction, or at least something to consider.

[Darkstorn]

My only criticisms of PC gaming are the need for expensive graphics card upgrades and the lack of splitscreen.

Apart from that, it does just about everything better.

[kasasensei]

Your main criticism is not "really" true. I can take my PC for example. It is basically a athlon 4800X2 2.4ghz with 2gb ram kingston hyperx and a 8800gts640 with a terratec 7.1 and a 19"asus vw192s.
All of this is a little more than 3 years old. I can play any game on it. Mainly because of the 1440*900 screen resolution. It is not too big, so my hardware can easily run dirt2 at 70fps in native, for example. I play only with a minimum AA*2 and a filtering*2, so it is really not a problem to handle any game with these settings. And if the game remains too heavy, i switch the shadows to low and all is fine.
So as you can see, pc gaming does not force you to have an upgrade for your killer machine every year.

[dirthurts]

Not mandatory at all. Why does everyone think everything has to run at max settings? It's certainly not the case.

[Darkstorn]

I can barely run new releases with my 256mb Geforce 8600.

[NewZealander]

there are so many games that dont even make it to pc, so if you want a massive selection of some of best games get a console, if you want to continually upgrade your pc to play games thats sweet, but on console at least you get a huge variety of games not available on pc.

plus ill take playing socially in my living room any day over being stuck behind a keyboard.

[MWH]

make that a juvenile console gamer. for the sake of whatever you cherish the most, get past this nonsense enjoy gaming while your age permits it and get a social life instead of sitting behind a "PC" keyboard to waste our time and the least of our concerns yours as well with such poor and attention-begging articles.

[NYC_Gamer]

we get one of these articles like every week

[KingKiff]

Every day you mean... I am surprised that the author didn't say the top 10 reasons why PC gaming is dead lol...

FUD ARTICLE

[Chris_TC]

I'm so sick of the unrealistic upgrade argument. Does the console hardware get upgraded? No. So obviously we don't need to upgrade the PC either to play those same games.

[The real killer]

Please shut your big mouth litlle boy.

This article has some real good points, i play more often on my PC than consoles and i hate when game suck many GPU power or RAM and even CPU power, meanwhile on consoles like PS3 get the very good looking games with less powerfull hardware.

Yes, this article has made good point and you don't get it right?

[Pandamobile]

Are you learning disabled or something?

"i hate when game suck many GPU power or RAM and even CPU power"

Lol.

If the games you're trying to play are to intense for your computer, that probably means you've got a pretty shitty computer, because if you've got a mid-range PC from the last 3 years or so, you should be able to play just about any game on the market.

[SOAD]

It's hard to believe you play games on PC at all.

[Chris_TC]

That's because he obviously doesn't.

[hamoor]

"This article has some real good points, i play more often on my PC than consoles and i hate when game suck many GPU power or RAM and even CPU power, meanwhile on consoles like PS3 get the very good looking games with less powerfull hardware"

no your atom netbook is not suited for games

[SOAD]

damn. I have an atom netbook. while it's certainly not for gaming, I can play some oldies without much trouble. Elder Scrolls Morrowind, for example.

[hoops]

Oh Real Killer...you are so stupid

[hoops]

Stop playing games on your P3 system running a 4600ti then Real Killer. Forget it....just stick to sub HD PS3/Xbox360 gaming with no AA and 30fps with last generation HDR effects....it suits you

[Zenkure]

PC is waaaay better than consoles, the only thing that sucks about it is the amount of money that can be spent on upgrading it.

I will say though, based on controls there are some games better fit for PC and other games are a better fit for consoles. Although some games are really more on how comfortable you are with a controller or a mouse and keyboard.

[karlowma]

Considering you can use either a PS3 or XBox 360 controller with a PC, this point is null and void.

[Zenkure]

yeah well some people can't afford to continuously upgrade their PC and have a 360 or PS3

[8800gtx]

Upgrades? wat?

How is it the RSX or Xenos manage to play current gen games? oh thats right they run them on lower settings, most of the time even in sub HD.

At my age i could still play 95% of the games out there at 1080p that sure beats hardware marketed as next gen.

8800gtx

[SolidSystem]

another "pc gaming costs too much money"

-cheaper games
-if you keep your PC in good order and dont wait till your PC cant play games anymore to upgrade it, it usually only takes a quick fix to get it back to funning full blast.

i have a gaming PC, one of the top tier ones as well. it takes maybe 50 dollars a year of necessary upgrades to keep it in good condition.

[Scudd]

I agree totally. The PC i built 4 or so years ago still plays games which look better than anything a console can put out. PC games have the option to reduce graphics to make the games run smoother. Upgrading is not a requirement unless ur pc is ancient. If you want to play the latest games at the best quality then yes, upgrading is essiential but unfortunatly for the PC, developers are just giving us lousy ports of console games and not enough to push our systems to the limit.

[Agent-86]

You don't even need a top tier system to enjoy PC gaming. My rig cost $500 to build two years ago and can run most games on high settings or graphically intense ones on medium. It has 6400+ (3.2ghz dual core), 9800 GTX+ (512mb), and 4gbs RAM. Not a powerhouse, but even on medium settings, the graphics are usually far better than what you get on the consoles.

These days, I think game publishers are leading more on consoles (due to piracy on PC only titles) and porting the games to PC with tacked on dx11 support. As a result of this "console-drag" on gaming, you don't need to constantly upgrade and can keep existing components longer. PC's are very reasonable these days and think the "PC's are too expensive" argument no longer applies.

[SKUD]

LMAO

[Nihilism]

I agree with the article. I think people hating the article only read the headline, and with a headline like that....it's no suprise. But the article is neutral, and very true.

I just bought a GTX480....now I realise there is yet another cost because My GPU bottleneck is beating a brother down.

I have the best of everything: gaming with max settings and AA on my 40" bravia...I am going to buy a 360 controller to play DMC4 and Street Fighter IV.

I have it hooked up to my 5.1 surround sound ( 400watt front speakers....each...not total...30-35000hz response...yeah they're good )

But I have to wonder if it was worth it...I was pissed when I realised that my PC was still not 'perfect' after buying my new GPU.

I can see why people play console's. But the costs I have incured were a choice...not a requirement. Games do not require those high specs. I just don't like gaming at low frame rates. I think if you are serious about PC gaming you need a fair bit of disposable income because upgrading sucks balls...

But you do save $10-$20 per game....

[hamoor]

"I was pissed when I realised that my PC was still not 'perfect'"
it shouldn't be perfect!!!
thats the problem with most people
they think that they most have the most powerful pc ever or not at all!!!

everything get outdated and there is always something better than what you got but you gotta live with that

[KingKiff]

Like I said in the last article like this one.

I refuse to put up points anymore as to why PC gaming is better/not dead.

I just don't care anymore, let these idiots think what they like, my comment will not change their opinions one bit.

If they want to play on inferior machines and pretend that they are the be all and end all then so be it.

Enjoy your console for what ever reason you have but don't make up FUD to try and down play PC gamers.

Pathetic article full of mute points.

EDIT: I have saved more than $10-$20 on each game with steam, most games I have purchased are at least 60%-95% of the RRP of console games. I feel the saving I make in the games more than makes up for the added hardware costs.

DAMMIT. See what you have done? Here I am typing out points about PC gaming again!!!

[Nihilism]

EDIT:

CPU bottleneck... not GPU, I'm all good in that department.

850/1700/1000 @1.087 volts :D

My CPU is 3 years old though, it's to be expected...

[zero_gamer]

I enjoy PC gaming.

[skip2mylou]

the only reason why it may suck is because you dont got the money to upgrade it when the pc youve been using has passed 5 or 6 years and the games start to surpass it :(

[DeeBee]

Hey now, my current rig is almost 6 years old and I'm having no problems! LOL On saying that I'm just waiting on the last part to arrive for my new rig so I can put this one out to pasture.

[Rovdjuret]

Why dont you keep your opinions about PCgaming on the PS/Xbox side of the webpage so we PCgamers dont have to see this trashtalking article

[aaron5829]

Just finished SC:Conviction on the PC on realistic mode... going thru Deniable Ops now...

Such a good game.. :)

and no, PC gaming does not suck... gaming does not suck.. period.

[yamzilla]

...when you are incapable of rudimentary puzzle solving. This instantly puts 80% of the population at a great disadvantage.

So please, by all means, go back to your console where everything will be handled for you...all you have to do is get your round, over-fed, walmart shopping ass over to your box of choice and press the button with your large cheetos stained finger.

Of course the price you will pay is crappy 1996 era sub hd 576p resolutions and 2x or no anti aliasing( for these people this means there will be lots of shitty looking lines and jagged edges all over your screen) you probably won't notice it on your 19" Vizio lcd that you got from costco for $149.88 anyway, so who cares.
Each game will also cost you at least $10 more, but adding lot's of numbers is not one of your strong suits so you won't realize that with a 15 to 40% savings per game, those " Super Expensive and Hard to think about 'Gaming PC's' will actually be cheaper in the long run.

We should really have breeding regulations.

The article title should read..."PC gaming sucks for poor uneducated people who lack problem solving skills"

I have not looked at system requirements in YEARS....
it's kind of like that saying....if you go around wondering all the time if you are an alcoholic...you probably are.....

if you go around all the time wondering if you pc can play this game or that, it probablly can NOT!

[kasasensei]

I love PC gaming. I play on PC since the early 90's. I can not imagine my gamer life without a gaming PC. The only thing that makes me hate PC gaming sometimes, is lazy developers who do not even bother to make a decent PC version of their games...
For example, i can name Saints Row 2 (just can not run properly), or GRAW2 (crashes in a few minutes), or FarCry2 (drm refuses to detect the disc), or any games for windows live (because i can not lend them to my friends)... PC gaming can be a curse, but most of the time i enjoy it a lot more than console gaming.

[Trunkz]

PC Gaming since the 90's (Mmmmm Rainbow Six, yum) Would never switch to console for FPS Gaming, it's just so limited.

[360Defender]

hardcore gamers use PC's. my PS3 and 360 are fun, but they are crap compared to my gaming rigs.

[Scudd]

The PC has survived through every single console generation. U can still play games from 30 odd years ago on the PC which accounts for thousands of games. Unless u are prepared to keep every console and hope that they dont break you will never be able to experience the past classics. I have had my PC the same for 4 years now and it still plays all the latest games at high quality available. All i would need to buy is a graphics card for about £150 and i would be able to run them at full tilt. I love my PC and i love my PS3 but i know i will have my PC in 20 years where as my PS3 will be in a scrap yard.

[Theonik]

Haha, i'm in the same position as you. xD

[tweakedhuman]

did i just read that games improving and graphics improving is a bad thing?

dont buy shitty hardware and you wont have that problem for 3-4 years.......not hard. educate yourself first before saying stupid shit

did i just read " financial times we are in now, nobody can really afford to get upgrades for the computer and this is where the console really does shine."

lol please dont make me laugh...i spent 1500$ on new hardware...that excuse is bullshit...get a better job and stop crying....

[RagTagBnd445]

The article has a pretty good point, if you are playing on a standard office PC, with an onboard GPU, however a decent gaming rig does not cost that much anymore.

Also about the constant upgrade thing: yeah maybe the gaming pc you buy today will not play new games in 3 years on very high, however you can just tone down the graphics and problem solved.

[abdullah nazhat]

I can't afford buying a 2000$ PC ,I have a 15 series,700$ priced dell laptop which lagged like a turtle with quack wars , runs cod4 a little below medium ,my PS3 pushes better graphics with a 300$ price tag now I only use my PC for studying and running programming software .

[Ravenor]

You don't need a 2000 dollar desktop to run games faster then the PS3 and laptops are not made for games...how many times must this be said?

[insomnium]

I don't care about PC-gaming. Never have, never will. To me PCs are for everything else but gaming. I don't care what people think. This is my truth. Not trolling but telling my truth about this.

Most of the time PC gamers are annoying elitists. They always come to KZ or Uncharted related articles and bash on their graphics if someone dares to say he likes them. Crysis at max settings is the only suitable measure of good graphics. Everything else is "meh not as good as Crysis" or "poor mans Crysis/PC". It doesn't matter how steep the step to play Crysis at max is. It doesn't matter how small the install base is that can play Crysis at max. Doesn't matter if the potential (out of the box) install base for Uncharted 2 etc. is well over 35 million.

Idk maybe I've been in the wrong place at the wrong time but to me PC gamers are extreme fanboys and elitists (not sure if that word is pronounced like that but I'm sure you get it right)

[Ravenor]

Understanding install bases for the win.

If Pachters "only 10% of all the PC's in the world are faster then a PS3" then there are far more Gaming PC's then PS3. Also you should know that the brunt of the PC community does not visit this place, for you to even think you have an accurate picture of the pc community then you are an ignorant ignorant person.

When we see PC writers and columnists writing shitty articles like this on a weekly basis then you have a story but until then...

[insomnium]

WTH? You saying "Understanding install bases for the win" and after that you say "If Pachters "only 10% of all the PC's in the world are faster then a PS3" then there are far more Gaming PC's then PS3"

Do you have any idea what most of the powerfull compures are used to do? I'm not sure but research of some kind would be my guess. Second would be simulation of some kind. This entire opinion-piece is basing on the fact that surely I'm talking about max-Crysis running gaming rigs that are actually used in GAMING.

Crysis sold something like a million in 1.5 months http://gamrconnect.vgchartz...
and NOT 10% of the entire install base of PCs which would be something like 87687577765 million gazillion.
Why you use the entire PCs install base as base to this arguement when I'm talking about GAMING rigs obviously is beyond me.

So about 1.5 million and out of those how many can play it on max settings? If you cannot understand my trail of thought here there's not much I can do about it.

Anyway I'm talking out of my own experience on the forums I frequently use. The PC-people there (here and few other forums) tend to be elitists and extreme nerdy fanboys. Atleast in the news which are related to graphics on PS3. You should spend some more time here for example so you'd see it for yourself.

Edit: For example my cousin bought Crysis but he can't play it on max so there's one down 1,499,999 to go. Who's next? LOL!

[Ravenor]

My friend with 8800 GTS (SLi) installed in his computer are still running games on the highest settings at 1680*1050 with AA (In most cases Crysis and GTAIV being the exception). This PC is over 3 years old now and he has pumped 0 dollars into it. Hmmm something doesn't add up.

The article isn't well written at all and the points are weak. Don't have Shader model 4.0? How old is your graphics card? Put very simply, you don't expect your PS2 to play GoD of War 3 how on earth can you expect a outdated PC to play a NEW game? If the idea of having to buy a new graphics card (Which isn't that expensive if you're smart) every 3-4 years is really that gut wrenching then I have no idea how you can stomach being a console gamer let alone a PC gamer.

Console life cycles were shorter before this one.

[Paradise Lost]

Pc gaming can get annoying with updating drives and such. But other than that i prefer pc gaming because im more used to having a mouse and a keyboard.

[INehalemEXI]

PC gaming does not suck cause of F2P's , emu's and mod's. You don't even need a high end rig for a lot of sweet stuff out there. Only thing that does suck is when a video card goes out or when I got to buy a new mobo cause the one I got is going obsolete, and I swear I just bought it but it's been 5 years.

[Drjft]

Gotta love these articles.

NOT.

[dirthurts]

I wouldn't even own a console...
But consoles are good for games that aren't worth purchasing. I just rent them. Any good game I play I purchase for pc. It just feels cheap to play on consoles when you have so much more power at your disposal. With the current gen consoles being drug further and further that hardware is getting duller and duller...

[insomnium]

People. My 2 previous comments have been adressed exactly to most of the commenters on this news. People like yamzilla.

The only problem with your ramblings about PCs superiority is that your PC cannot play the best games that are on PS3. No way no how. So you need a PS3 anyway for those titles. Given that you must be a gamer and a HC-gamer at that to be bolstering about your powerfull PCs.

What do you do? Buy a PS3 and know what the best games (in almost every genre) are like or stay left behind and spread your "meh not Crysis level"-BS and not know what the fuss is all about. You need a PS3 to be a gamer. You can cover 98% of the best games in the world with a PC+PS3 combo. You can cover about 88% of the best games with only PS3. With an x360? With that you get 56%. Yes I'm talking about games released 2005+. Yes I'm throwing number out from my ass but you get the idea unless you are an x360 fanboy. Nothing can beat Sonys 1st party devs.

[Trunkz]

I own a PS3 and a PC (and Wii)

Like the guy said up above I pretty much agree and do the same. My PS3 is fun for playing those fun games, Arkham, LBP, etc but when it comes to FPS and some other type of games, no console can compete (at least not yet) to a PC.

Even then, I tend not to compare PC to consoles as it's just different, consoles should be compared to consoles until they can fully match what PC's can do ^^

[insomnium]

I don't want to play using kb/m.

I don't know if it's just me but the dualshock is just great for several reasons.

For first I've always played on a controller of some sort. From nes 8bit to PS3 I've always played with a controller. Kb/m-combination feels weird for me for that reason.

Second reason might be that it makes things way too competitive. I'm guessing when playing online there are a handfull of players that own everyone. Noone can touch them. They get atleast 10 kills with every death. THEY RUIN THE EXPERIENCE FOR EVERYONE ELSE. I mean I play to have fun and getting my ass handed to me is no fun.

I don't have the time to be the bestest of them all like some of them are. Someone might call those top players no-lifes and I'm guessing this is the case most of the time on any platform on any games top lists. Only a nolife cam play 18 hours a day and get to be on the top.

When I play MW1 my k/d ratio is 1.34 but if I would be playing on PC it would be 0.5 if I'm lucky. This would cause the fact that playing online would be a burden and I wouldn't do it anymore. That would be a loss in my book since I do enjoy playing MW1 online. The controller with it's limitations evens out the playing field where no man is above the others like I would presume it is playing on a PC.

This can be twisted around that I'm a crybaby here since I'm not good in games and whine here. However gaming to me is a HOBBY and not my JOB when I NEED to be good at it. I don't want to be in a clan and have mics and be serious about winning matches. When I play I play with friends and even though we have mics the playing is not that serious. We do it for fun.

Getting my ass handed to me ALL THE TIME is not fun. Taking games too seriously is not fun it's a chore.

I might be open to try out kb/m-combination if some devs took the time and put the support in their games on the PS3. This PC of mine is atleast 6 years old and it cannot be used in gaming unless I want my games to look like PS1-games. And additionally I don't care to play on a PC anyway. I gues it's my loss but since I don't have enough time to play ALL the best first party games on PS3 it doesn't bother me.

[ThePiousPriest]

If you are going to bash a platform, do some research and make it more than two paragraphs. A majority of console gamers don't understand that a console is a locked down piece of hardware with a more or less restricted operating system (more so than Windows, and wholeheartedly more than Linux based OSes), so yes there is going to be more definitive standards as to whether or not something will run on their console. The mistake is assuming all other gaming platforms are like this. It is the writers fault for not understanding computers in a basic sense and bothering to check the system requirements before loading crysis onto an emachine and expecting 60 fps at 2560x1600 with 8xAA. The author also fails to understand that the so called "New" slim versions are simply the same hardware shrunken down to reduce electrical consumption/ heat output.

I've encountered folks who are looking to update a game, who don't have access to xbox live or psn, let alone internet access, and assume MS or Sony will beam down an update via satellite, now not all console gamers are like this but I find a great majority are. This mentality of "I don't care how it works, just that it works" is the wrong mentality to use in terms of gaming, and our culture much larger. As far as updates are concerned, you could spend roughly anywhere between 500-700 for a computer system (roughly the same as when a new console comes out, and after buying an extra controller an xbl sub and a game) that destroys the 360 or PS3 with room to breathe. You don't have to upgrade every 6 months to something akin to a GTX 480 in order to run games smoothly. Just do your research while selecting parts and you will be fine.

Before many of you decide to jump on me and bash me as being a "PC fanboy" keep in mind I was playing SNES probably before most console users on this site were born or playing video games. SNES was my first system and I was a console gamer until about 2 years ago. I even own a PS3 and a Wii myself. I simply switched to PC gaming because it yields better results in gameplay and I like the open nature of it.