Comments with -10 or lower "thumbs" are removed from display.

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  -2 thumbs!

  Play ISDF | February 29, 2008
  I see what he's saying about how consoles go through stages in leaps and computers at a steady pace, but computers are always upgrading, new parts are made, new operating systems, and new software etc. Consoles only get upgraded every 5 years aprox. It's hardly a fair comparison, especially when most top of the line computers FLOG new consoles when they come out.
  
  Seriously, what's going to win out of:
  1)PS3
  2)360
  3)Wii
  4)A computer with say...2 Nvidia 8800 GTX video cards overclocked, a 2.8ghz dual core (thus 5.6ghz processing), 5 gb's of ram and a kick ass motherboard to tie it all together, not to mention whatever the hell else (yes I'm aware there are more powerful setups for computers if you have the cash, this is just off the top of my head).
  
  See, hardly a fair comparison. And it's hard to say there's a lack of creativity in today's PC gaming. C&C3 was great, Sins of a Solar Empire too, and Supreme Commander totally kicked ass (and computer resources). Wonder if he was just trying to put WorldShift on a pedestal before it was even released just so they'd get more people to buy it.
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    0 thumbs!

    vaga_koleso | February 29, 2008
    Your hardware comparison is totally flawed, because what's actually going to win out is... a 360 or a PS3. There is one feature of a console that will NEVER be duplicated on a PC, and it makes all the difference in the world. It's the fact that its CUSTOM MADE FOR GAMES. No matter what kind of fire is shooting out of your PC's ass, the fact is, you are still running Windows, Office, browsing the web and doing a million other things that clog up your registry, hard drive, memory and cpu processing. Despite all the progress that MS has made with DirectX, that still means your overall gaming experience is much more likely to falter at some point or another than that of a dedicated gaming machine, even if that machine has inferior tech specs.
    
    Mind you, I am not even touching on the HUGE advantages of developing for a single known hardware configuration (i.e. console) vs. a million possible combinations of video, audio, motherboard, memory, etc. (i.e. PC).
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      1 thumbs!

      Redemption | February 29, 2008
      Sadly this is too true. But I think one problem is that PC game developers equate more eye candy and wowfactor with innovation regardless of horsepower requirements and inefficient use such eye candy. Console developers are forced to aggressively optimise the game to maximize visual gratification with performance.
      
      I think THAT's the huge problem with PC gaming.
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      2 thumbs!

      jmac353 | February 29, 2008
      While that's definitely true, PC gamers are a different breed of gamer entirely. I do both, but at the end of the day, If I had the choice I would chose PC gaming without a doubt. Sure, in PC gaming there is that huge possibility that something on your computer is going to mess with your gaming experience and you might have to trouble shoot a bit but PC gamers also kind of enjoy that aspect of it. We like to get down into the nitty gritty and tweak the hell out of our games. We like to set up autoexecs and mess with the console commands. We enjoy modding our games and even defragmenting our hard drives. It's strange to say that we enjoy it, but we do to a certain extent. It's a more hands on approach. We love to open up or PC's and install new hardware, hell, even reseting your CMOS after a failed CPU overclock is kind of exciting.
      There's just some pride-filled joy about being technical and finding out what's causing your game to crash and fixing it yourself without the help of others.
      
      I can definitely understand why a lot of people would not enjoy this, but there are TONS of people that do. Just look at World of Warcraft, I hate MMORPGs but still, isn't that proof enough of PC gamings might and longevity? It seems like something people easily overlook.
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        2 thumbs!

        vaga_koleso | March 01, 2008
        I used to enjoy it - way back in the DOS days, when you had to mess around with loading things into "high memory" and that kind of crap. It had kind of a geek coolness to it back then. But I've gotten tired of it eventually, because more often than not it's not about getting creative about configuring your system anymore - but about buying new hardware. And then you can't buy a new video card because your motherboard is too old and doesn't have the right kind of slot, so next thing you know, you are getting a new computer, and low and behold you just spent a couple of grand to play a game. Sure, you can justify that you needed the upgrade for other things too, but truth of the matter is that 99% of all your other apps ran perfectly fine on your old setup. It's just too much of a hassle these days.
        
        Also, WOW is a bad example, because MMO games tend to have hardware requirements on the low side of things, so they don't tend to need any 'messing around' to run. In fact, MMOs are the single reason that PC gaming is still alive IMHO. If Everquest and Lineage and WOW were released for say, the Xbox (lets not argue whether they could have been - lets just pretend for a second) - PC gaming would probably already be long dead as we know it. And sadly enough, with online play really coming into its prime on the consoles - this will probably still happen once the new generation of great MMOS rolls around - in about 10 years or so.
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        0 thumbs!

        jmac353 | March 01, 2008
        WOW isn't a bad example, this is about PC gaming in general, we're not singling out one certain tier of PC gaming.
        
        And no, I can't say I agree with you. I don't think PC gaming will ever die.
        
        It's so funny to see people say "PC gaming will die/is dieing" when they each time a new batch of consoles come out we get articles about "how consoles are becoming more and more like PCs." Hypocritical much? You know what all this recent PC fuss is right now? Just a bunch of sensationalist nonsense because it seems like everything has to be so dramatic nowadays. Just an article some guy wrote so he could get some hits on his website.
        
        Even if your article is complete bullshit, if you can take a portion of truth, like say, PC gaming isn't doing as well as it used to be, and blow it out of proportion and say PC gaming is dieing then you succeed because the people reading it want things to be all dramatic and buy into these worthless things.
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  -3 thumbs!

  Capn Droid | February 29, 2008
  Can you say Portal? Okay, now can you say ignorant?
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    4 thumbs!

    ali3n | February 29, 2008
    Wait you state one game out of hundreds and you call them ignorant?
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  4 thumbs!

  vaga_koleso | February 29, 2008
  I am really sick and tied of game developers complaining about lack of innovation in games (PC or otherwise). It's not like innovation is something that comes shipped to you in package! YOU are not innovative! So get off your ass and innovate, and stop crying about it!
  
  Fact is, developers need to better do their homework. Innovation is, first and foremost, about imagination. But even if you aren't that good at coming up with new things of your own, there is PLENTY of great inspiration from other forms of entertainment. Like books. Yes, BOOKS. Remember those papery, non-digital things with pages with words on them? Try one sometime! Fact is, there is a BOATLOAD of GREAT ideas in sci-fi and fantasy genres alone that have yet to be translated into games, and could drive all kinds of innovation as far as game making is concerned.
  
  The best gaming companies do this kind of research - and they indeed come up with great games. I am talking about shops like Bioware and Black Isle Studios. Now if the rest of the game development world kept up, we would all be a lot better off.
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  -1 thumbs!

  Kinganubis2 | February 29, 2008
  I agree that I'd like to see some better, more "graphical" games out there on the market, but I also think that PC games are about where they should be. I mean, not everyone can afford, "2 Nvidia 8800 GTX video cards overclocked, a 2.8ghz dual core (thus 5.6ghz processing), 5 gb's of ram and a kick ass motherboard to tie it all together, not to mention whatever the hell else (yes I'm aware there are more powerful setups for computers if you have the cash, this is just off the top of my head)." All I'm saying is that PC games should continue to be the way they are because us poor people (myself included, for the time being neways...) can't afford those super gaming machines that you talk about.
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  0 thumbs!

  Storm | March 01, 2008
  That's true, that's at least $2,000 or so for a tower. They are working their way up in terms of graphics, that's for sure, like with Crysis...although the gameplay isn't nothing to brag about.
  
  I think until the PC Gaming Industries get bigger competition, they'll stick with somewhat mediocre and basic games rather than creative. Hell there's a lot of PC gamers out there that'll buy a game just based on a few screenshots, not realizing that they bought a very similar game a few months ago. Shame, really...
  
  Creativity as a whole in the gaming industry isn't very common, but it's becoming more and more rare to find in the PC side of things.
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  0 thumbs!

  Deathman48 | March 06, 2008
  Another aspect is the various amounts of patches needed these days for PC games. For the most part, a PS3 is a PS3, but there's so many different combinations of hardware and software that can vary from one PC to another. It's something else that PC game developers have to consider and it takes up much more time than any similar issues on a console game.