PC Gaming: It is more about OPTIONS than graphics.

I see it time and time again on this site and I do not know why it drives people to spread utter misinformation and bull about another platform.

I see the same comment made over and over, "you need a 1K PC to run games that look good".......NOT even close!

You can find many affordable builds that will get you in to PC gaming for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

PCs are not about graphics and any individual who tells you that has no idea what they are talking about or they are an elitist and it is as simple as that.

PC as a platform is all about options in my honest opinion. You can do anything with a PC and the sheer variety of games is mindblowing when you actually have a look into the PC library.
Just because a game isn't advertised with a AAA marketing scheme does not mean it is not a good game.

Right I said PC was about options? well these are the options you are provided with!

- Performance! tune it as you like, upgrade it as you see fit
- More game assets can be achieved with PC
- unlimited control options
- Top quality Servers on every game
- Steam platform provides os many options for sharing and building communities
- Exclusives with longevity with depth that cannot be equalled
- An indie industry putting out games with AAA quality
- Sound quality that is unmatched for audiphiles like me
- endless voice chat options like teamspeak which is essential for huge scale tactical games
- general high skill ceiling and competitive play
- Multitudes of MMOs to choose from like the breathtaking Guild Wars 2 which proves good art direction trumps graphics everytime
- Multitude of fantastic RTS games
- MOBA games like league of legends which has taken on a massive following
- Simulator games with unparalleled depth
- upgradable hardware
- Can fix problems with games by editing files etc, plenty of help on forums and google, Don't have to wait for a patch most times
- Can easily fix/replace hardware faults with some technical know how
- Easy transfer of save files
- The platform always on the edge of innovation
- multiple digital download services to choose from
- multitasking potential is enormous
- practically no storage limit especially with cloud save storage having been around for a few years
- portability of games isn't to bad considering steam games can be downloaded onto another PC with that account
- The option to customise your own graphics settings, not like motion blur? no problem!
- multiple resolutions available
- New innovative tech like the amaxing occulus rift pushing gaming to new levels
- It can perform so many more tasks besides gaming, virtually limitless
- It can store any type of media and a well set up PC is the ultimate media hub!
- It can capture and stream video directly from the system as well as fully edit and upload the video to video sharing platforms!

Hope fully after looking over this list people begin to realise PC isn't the platform with the best graphics...It is whatever platform you want it to be and a better term I think is the platform with options.

[FriedGoat]

PC is as good as the games that come out for it, and for me personally in my 25+ years of PC gaming now is the biggest lul in decent PC exclusives in recent memory. Infact, I would go as far as saying the PC is neglected as compared to 10 years ago.

But it sure does have those options. I have 3 rigs built currently, enjoy some old games over LAN occasionally.

[BitbyDeath]

Yea before PS2 I was a PC only guy.
Games used to be great. Lucas Arts Collections, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, Command and Conquer, Bullfrog, Maxis used to be a great developer who made all sorts of Sim titles etc etc

PC does not stand out as much as it used to which is quite unfortunate.

Now the craze is all mods for games you can find on consoles just to push graphics.

[FriedGoat]

Exactly this. I think the new blood really have no idea how good pc uses to be.

[MrPink2013]

It's because of costs and lack of marketing. I find the PC the ultimate gaming experience but piracy and because the PC is an open platform that makes it more risky with less control. Diablo 3 shows there is still a sizable market but they also made that anti piracy which likely helped sales. They talked about the trading for why you had to be online but by doing that it also prevented piracy. Blizzard is also one of the few that can afford to advertise the game.

[s45gr32]

Not just graphics but new missions, improved A.I., new maps, skins, characters, vehicles, etc. Look at Fallout series you can get a mod that makes the A.I.adaptive how you play, also there's a mod that cripple makes the character unable to run, or walk straight. Skyrim has tons of missions made by gamers for free, You can also play as batman run over Spiderman using a jeep on Skyrim. .......

[Vegamyster]

@MrPink2013

Piracy has become far less of an issue and is more of an excuse since digital distributes like Steam, GoG, Amazon, GMG, Humble Bundles ect have become popular, the amount of money these services make is proof.

[MrPink2013]

Vegamyster it is still very much an issue. Those services like GOG don't have $60 games. That's why you see less of them and more of the cheaper games. The big publishers still see piracy as an issue and are more reluctant to release their big titles on the PC. Hopefully that changes. Games like Destiny really need to be on it. It's the only place left for next gen games with free online.

[Codey47]

Completely agree with Friedgoat.

I used to be an avid PC ONLY Gamer over two decades of service and enthusiast upgrades.(even though a few users here highly doubt that)

I saw developer support dropping over the years so I decided to jump ship

"- Multitudes of MMOs to choose from like the breathtaking Guild Wars 2 which proves good art direction trumps graphics everytime - Multitude of fantastic RTS games - MOBA games like league of legends which has taken on a massive following"

Which is one of the many reasons why I gave up PC Gaming due to the massive influx of those genres...personally I can't stand those types of games and it is in no doubt in my mind, those genres that's really keeping it alive..it certainly isn't the shoddy console ports of past, present and future.

[s45gr32]

The author forgot about the schmups like Jamestown, enemy mind. Platformer exclusives like freedom planet, old school jrpgs like Dream,Recettear, YS franchise ,etc. The adventure genre is really on the easy side except Primordia. Path of Exile is a really good game. I guess is that there's not that many complex games as years past. I tried the mmo genre but I just don't get the appeal to it

[MrPink2013]

Nvidia announced they have sold 10 million GTX 680 cards. That's just one GPU so high end gaming PC systems are still quite popular.

[AndrewLB]

The lul in PC games is complete stupidity on the part of developers since the PC gaming market beats out consoles globally in revenue and it's lead is only getting larger.

http://www.pcr-online.biz/n...

Regarding "Exclusives"... most PC gamers could care less, just as long as they spend more than 10 minutes optimizing for the PC platform. *cough* ubisoft *cough*.

The PC gaming library is so far beyond any other platform in size that most of us don't feel the need to squander good games to ourselves like Console fans spend their lives doing. In fact, by including the PC platform in game releases, consoles are pretty much guaranteed a better game since developers always take graphics further when there is a PC version.

The problem is PC gaming doesn't have an all powerful parent company overseeing and approving all games being made for the platform like you see with the Playstation and Xbone and their huge marketing budgets.
The fact that PC gaming doesn't have any of this yet still dominates the gaming market worldwide definitely shows how popular the platform is. Sony and Microsoft spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year selling their platforms and they're still not able to keep up.

[FriedGoat]

Wow, I don't think your looking at the right things here. There are more people with pc's because pcs aren't dedicated to gaming. I think if you look at any multiplatform title, and it will sell better on consoles guaranteed. The pc market includes all kinds of crap because its an open platform. But when it comes to proper games, pc is lacking. I don't usually go back and play games from the past so a large back catalogue aint something that interests me. When it comes to new, aaa IP the pc is far far behind. When did a pc game get GOTY recently? TLOU flat out destroys anything out on the pc in the past few years in quality. And this is coming from someone who most likely PC gamed LONG before you did.

Mmo, moba and F2p that's all the pc is these days. No innovation, no pushing of boundaries like 10 years ago with Half life 2. If you want to play the next big thing, it ain't gonna be on pc I'm afraid.

Thanks for that article though, "an analyst claims" hilarious.

[SteamPowered]

Im still waiting for Steam to step into that role. Pc is so open that it doesnt need a parent company, more like an advisor. I cant believe how incredible Steam is and the fact that it is so popular, yet Steam never advertises ever. If they would actually care to market themselves, I feel that Steam could be the messiah that Pc gamers have yearned for.

[JDW]

@ FriedGoat
"But when it comes to proper games, pc is lacking"

Define a 'proper game', please.

I suppose Divinity - Original Sin isn't a proper game?

The newly released Wasteland 2 isn't a proper game?

Total War games aren't proper games?

Civilization, Arma 3, Star Citizen...all not proper games, yes?

[s45gr32]

I agree but let's get something straight and that's gamers becoming modders and then independent game developers that drive PC gaming forward. It was former PC gamers that brought counterstrike not Valve,it was pc gamers that brought Day Z,etc. Its through kickstarter, early access that some of the best games are coming out like the sequel to Wasteland,FTL, Hawken,Rust,The Forest, etc. So it will be the gamers themselves not a multibillion dollar corporation that drives PC gaming forward even Valve is pretty much handing its duties to the steam community whether is greenlight, early access, and in Valve time custom steam stores

[starchild]

FriedGoat and I already had this discussion in another comment section so I'll just re-post what I wrote there with maybe a few changes and clarifications to make it more easily understood without the context of that discussion.
--------------
I've gamed on the PC since the 80s and I feel that things are better now than they have ever been in the past. First of all, you are overlooking a lot of fantastic PC exclusives. There might not be something of the caliber of Half Life right now, but that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of great exclusives still to be found on PC.

But what has really improved dramatically is the overall diversity of games on the PC. Back then, sure, we got a few more high-profile exclusives, but the downside is that we missed out on hundreds of high-quality 3rd party games. The consoles got literally hundreds of awesome franchises that were totally absent on the PC. That doesn't sound like a good trade-off.

I personally love the fact we now get games like Metal Gear Solid 5, Castlevania Lords of Shadow and Final Fantasy XIII. These games, and many others like them, would have generally skipped the PC in the past and only have been available on consoles. To be able to play them with pristine image quality and smooth performance on a platform with full backwards compatibility is simply a great thing.

Your comment that "most 3rd party stuff is a joke" is utterly baffling. I don't understand the way fanboys worship exclusives and overhype each new exclusive that comes down the pike. Any sane gamer can see that many exclusives are mediocre or even crappy games. They are no more special in general than any other type of game. Some are great, some are mediocre and some are pretty bad. The great games, whether exclusive or multiplat, should be celebrated.

3rd party multiplatform games comprise the vast majority of games released each year. And by extension the vast majority of my favorite games are 3rd party multiplats. As far as exclusives, yeah there are a handful on each platform that I really love...but if I was forced to choose between the exclusives from one console or the huge number of multiplats that I love I wouldn't even have to think about it. The multiplats would win without a second thought.

The PC platform today is better than ever. Nearly every 3rd party developer from the smallest, most creative indies to the biggest budget AAA developers now make games for the PC. My favorite platform is always going to be the platform that gets the broadest variety of games and the platform that can play those games with the best graphics, performance and the most options and flexibility.

[Jurat]

The modding community is what keeps me gaming on PC

[JDW]

The PC has some awesome exclusives recently...and a few more coming very soon.

Divinity - Original Sin
Wasteland 2
Civilization - Beyond Earth
Football Manager
Medieval 2 Total War
Star Citizen
DayZ
The Banner Saga
Age of Wonders 3
FTL

[s45gr32]

From a console gamer to a PC gamer. What surprise me the most about PC gaming is its ease of use both software and hardware wise. A couple of clicks away and every game I want can be downloaded and install. But my biggest surprise is platformers and more platformer games that is unreal. Old school jrpgs galore,and scare in your shit pants survival horror games. Even an upcoming arcade racer,yes an arcade racer game on the PC. Schockingly enough splitscreen multiplayer is making its way to PC gaming (Rayman Legends,Jamestown, Ace Combat horizon,Trine Franchise) . What's sad is what I just mentioned is becoming extinct on consoles

[MadLad]

Have to disagree with Frie. Even if you think PC gaming isn't as strong as it was in years past, it's still hell of a lot stronger than what you are seeing from the current crop of consoles at the moment.
There's more promise in the Early Access titles I've began covering as of the last few weeks than there is in the current announced line-ups of the One's and PS4's right now.