Are we entering a PC gaming golden age?

please explain the logic to me..

the ps4 is released, it never gets upgraded and the hardware stays the same through its lifespan... so a game that comes out 6 years into the lifespan of the PS4 will require 2-3 GPU upgrades to keep the same settings as a console that has 6 year old hardware?

wtf?

It's already wrong cause it assumed consoles are medium-high settings in the first place. By half way through last gen, consoles were equivalent to low settings in most cases even though they started out as equivalent to mostly high in multiplats. This gen consoles are starting out as a mixture of lower than the lowest pc setting,low,medium, and high settings so the consoles are going to hold out even less.
 
I'm not talking about simulators, though, right? I'm talking more like... elements that make games lean away from "games" and more towards "virtual realities," like... simulations the way Tamagotchi was a simulation. They're less abstract. They're not so much about scores, but about actions the player engages in within the space. I'm talking about stuff like System Shock and Deus Ex. Heck, even games like Age of Empires tackled this in some way.

Essentially, it's about the game space as a real space, rather than the game space as merely a space with rules and regulations and a win condition.
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I'm not talking about simulators, though, right? I'm talking more like... elements that make games lean away from "games" and more towards "virtual realities," like... simulations the way Tamagotchi was a simulation. They're less abstract. They're not so much about scores, but about actions the player engages in within the space. I'm talking about stuff like System Shock and Deus Ex. Heck, even games like Age of Empires tackled this in some way.

Essentially, it's about the game space as a real space, rather than the game space as merely a space with rules and regulations and a win condition.

I read you. Simulation and Mechwarrior/Battletech in the same sentence just make me think about how cool a proper (Battletech) 'mech sim would be. Unfortunately no one is making one.

I am not 100% sure but i feel of The Elder Scrolls series, Morrowind is more of a simulation compared to Oblivion and Skyrim. The latter feel more... game-y?
 
PC is taking what it can get, often console leftoversn steam is full of unfinished games, that does not a Golden age make.

Yeah, plus this thread barely reached 4 pages after a day and Sony already sold 25 million PS4, that's all that you need to know about the importance of PC gaming in the world.
 
I'm not a PC gamer so my opinion isn't worth a lot, but until PC gaming has fairly consistent major exclusives that are GOTY caliber, I don't think it can be considered the golden age. I mean in the 90's/early 2000's you had Deus Ex, Half Life, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape Torment, Starcraft, etc. It had games in contention for best of all time.

The overall landscape is undoubtedly the best it's ever been with a lot of potential going forward, but I'm not seeing the same level of megaton games as back thing. A ton of games, yes. Great diversity, yes. But games that make non-PC gamers play PC games (Baldur's Gate did this for me), I just don't see it.

But I reiterate, it is a great time to be a PC gamer.
 
Not really. It's a great age for gaming, PC is benefiting from that by proxy, very few big names are taking the time to create mind blowing reasons why consoles are the red headed step children of gaming, in fact a lit of the big names that used to are focusing in red heads first now; and placating the PC crowd with nips amd bobs in the graphics and sounds menu to make them feel better about what in all truths is a downgrade from what could have been if PC was the lead.

PC is taking what it can get, often console leftoversn steam is full of unfinished games, that does not a Golden age make.

Yea, I mean I must have been imagining Ashes of the Singularity, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity, Wasteland 2, Torment: Tides of Numunera, The Bards Tale IV, Star Citizen, and the myriad of PC only indies. Add to that, a large number of Visual Novel games from Japan that are only releasing on PC in the west.
 
Care to provide an example of such at least? I'm struggling to remember any here.

Ask, and you shall receive.

Battlefield_Bad_Company_Game_Cover.png
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There's more out there, but those were the ones I could remember instantly off the top of my head, and probably the two that left the most salt.
 
I think it's so good that I take it all for granted now. In 1990, I was playing Wing Commander, Mechwarrior and Red Baron. Those experiences were wondrous to me at the time. I remember flying missions in Red Baron and then being notified a particular German ace (not von Richthofen) was spotted and having that "Oh shit..." moment as a young pilot in the game. The progression was so fun.
 
PC gaming is great, but I still have a lot of problems with it. (Yes, my personal problems are just anecdotal evidence and don't mean anything, I know.) The Witcher 3 stays in borderless window mode and will not enter fullscreen mode no matter what I do. Metal Gear 5 always starts in a very low resolution and won't let me change resolutions unless I go into windowed mode and then back to fullscreen mode every time I start the game. And I have a million other examples of stuff like this. It gets exhausting.
 
Ask, and you shall receive.

Battlefield_Bad_Company_Game_Cover.png
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There's more out there, but those were the ones I could remember instantly off the top of my head, and probably the two that left the most salt.

Bad Company is hardly a PC IP as it had nothing to do with PC Battlefields basically.

As for CoD one could argue if CoD even was a PC franchise at any point of it's life. Remember this?

Codfhbox.jpg


This was released one year after CoD1 as a console exclusive title.

Any other examples?
 
Not really. It's a great age for gaming, PC is benefiting from that by proxy, very few big names are taking the time to create mind blowing reasons why consoles are the red headed step children of gaming, in fact a lit of the big names that used to are focusing in red heads first now; and placating the PC crowd with nips amd bobs in the graphics and sounds menu to make them feel better about what in all truths is a downgrade from what could have been if PC was the lead.
While you can say that gaming in general is pretty good, the strength in PC largely stems from the resurgence of genres that used to be popular on that platform. This growth is largely unique to PC, and it'd be more accurate to say that some of it has spilled over to the console space.

PC is taking what it can get, often console leftoversn steam is full of unfinished games, that does not a Golden age make.
The main strength of PC gaming doesn't really lie in the AAA space and the most popular PC games tend not to be multiplatform titles to begin with. PC has had iffy ports for as long as games have been ported to PC so I don't think your argument holds much water.
 
Not really. It's a great age for gaming, PC is benefiting from that by proxy, very few big names are taking the time to create mind blowing reasons why consoles are the red headed step children of gaming, in fact a lit of the big names that used to are focusing in red heads first now; and placating the PC crowd with nips amd bobs in the graphics and sounds menu to make them feel better about what in all truths is a downgrade from what could have been if PC was the lead.

PC is taking what it can get, often console leftoversn steam is full of unfinished games, that does not a Golden age make.

Yeah, plus this thread barely reached 4 pages after a day and Sony already sold 25 million PS4, that's all that you need to know about the importance of PC gaming in the world.


Grade A posts right here folks. The first one thinks it's all about sounds and graphics or some dumb shit like that. The second one doesn't even make any damn sense.
 
I'm not a PC gamer so my opinion isn't worth a lot, but until PC gaming has fairly consistent major exclusives that are GOTY caliber, I don't think it can be considered the golden age. I mean in the 90's/early 2000's you had Deus Ex, Half Life, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape Torment, Starcraft, etc. It had games in contention for best of all time.
Interestingly enough, Baldur's Gate and Planescape (BI) had mediocre sales. Bioware didn't really get decent numbers until KOTOR or DA.
 
Grade A posts right here folks. The first one thinks it's all about sounds and graphics or some dumb shit like that. The second one doesn't even make any damn sense.

The number of posts like those that we see in these PC threads is continually increasing, as the PC Golden Age increases in duration. This is a good sign and a very entertaining one.
 
Games that I'm looking forward too in the future

Divinity Original Sin 2 and Enhanced Edition
Danmaku Unlimited 3
Blue Revolver
Tales of Zestiria
The Iconoclasts
Mother Russia Bleeds
Killer Instinct
Arcana Heart 3

I don't see any AAA titles there.
 
I'm not a PC gamer so my opinion isn't worth a lot, but until PC gaming has fairly consistent major exclusives that are GOTY caliber, I don't think it can be considered the golden age. I mean in the 90's/early 2000's you had Deus Ex, Half Life, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Planescape Torment, Starcraft, etc. It had games in contention for best of all time.

The overall landscape is undoubtedly the best it's ever been with a lot of potential going forward, but I'm not seeing the same level of megaton games as back thing. A ton of games, yes. Great diversity, yes. But games that make non-PC gamers play PC games (Baldur's Gate did this for me), I just don't see it.

But I reiterate, it is a great time to be a PC gamer.

Every year, incredible pc games come out that you dont hear about because you dont play pc games and thus dont pay attention. The pc, as an example, had elite dangerous exclusive for basically an entire year. WITH vr.
 
Games that I'm looking forward too in the future

Divinity Original Sin 2 and Enhanced Edition
Danmaku Unlimited 3
Blue Revolver
Tales of Zestiria
The Iconoclasts
Mother Russia Bleeds
Killer Instinct
Arcana Heart 3

I don't see any AAA titles there.

You arent looking forward to xcom 2? Thats a AAA game.
 
PC gaming was never dying and the age we are in currently began almost a decade ago with the rise of indie developers on all platforms. Not much has changed on PC since then.

Right before 3d cards came I think PC was in some trouble. There was a really bad time where the only thing that sold was doom and its map packs.
 
For me the golden age begun with kickstarter.

I can finally play games that are tailored to my tastes.

But generally yes, we are in a golden age kickstarter or not.

I have my eyes on Oculus Rift too.
 
Right before 3d cards came I think PC was in some trouble. There was a really bad time where the only thing that sold was doom and its map packs.

Popular pc games released after doom, but before the voodoo 1:

One must fall 2097
Jazz jackrabbit
raptor call of the shadows
Terminal velocity
Mech warrior 2
Tie fighter
Full throttle
Sim city 2000
Theme park
Syndicate
 
In terms of game quality I think there have been better moments throughout the history of the PC but in terms of quantity of titles, console titles being ported over and the ease of jumping into PC gaming it has never been better.

Steam basically saved PC gaming if you ask me. It centralized the process and the purchase of the products and it was pretty much the perfect answer to the rampant pirating that was occuring that was slowly but surely ending the business. Developers flat wouldn't make PC games in fear that they would have 200k sales along with 2 million illegal downloads of their products. But now since Steam and other places like it exist, the sales have returned thanks to great sales and the explosion of great products from indie devs and kickstarters.

Star Citizen is one of those dream projects that could probably end my marriage if I let it. Seriously it looks to be the perfect Freelancer expansion mixed with potential Star Trek like shit at the same time lol. Being able to actually live inside your Cruiser and man the turrets while the Captain flies and all that kind of stuff. Just insane looking game.

So yeah, it is definitely a fantastic time in PC gaming but there have been better overall times in terms of pure revolutionary titles.
 
Interestingly enough, Baldur's Gate and Planescape (BI) had mediocre sales. Bioware didn't really get decent numbers until KOTOR or DA.

That's not really surprising. KotOR was a push for consoles and further simplification to appeal to the mainstream. Dragon Age: Origins was their last attempt to keep with the classic party-based CRPG, and despite some issues, it was a solid modern example, even if it didn't live up to its legacy. Mass Effect on the other hand was the final straw. It represented an even greater push for consoles, simplicity, and a mainstream focus.

Brent Knowles Interview: An Insider's Look at BioWare, 2000-2009

Was Dragon Age's long development time a factor in the change in direction the series was forced to undergo? Like, did somebody decide that "Dragon Age: Origins-type RPGs just take too long to develop, so we can't make them anymore"?

I don't know. Obviously nobody liked how long it took for Dragon Age to be completed, but I think it was more a case of Mass Effect succeeding really well.

Though a smaller game from a content point of view, Mass Effect still felt like a big game (for many players, at least). The player voice and cinematic treatment made it extremely attractive. It became more difficult over the years to argue for doing anything markedly different from what Mass Effect was doing. It was a project that struck much closer to its schedule, did very well (ratings and sales) and had the wow factor (the Silent Protagonist of DA: Origins never had the appeal that Shepard did, whether in company meetings, publisher proposals, or on press tours).

Basically, a voiced protagonist, and the cinematic elements required to pull that presentation off properly, makes it extremely risky to attempt an asset heavy game like Dragon Age: Origins.
 
PC gaming is really great right now, but I don't think anything will top when I got my first 3D card the Voodoo 3000. Going from software rendering to 3D acceleration was a revelation. Unreal went from looking good to looking UNREAL. Playing vanilla Everquest was another huge deal.
 
You left during the worst time.

PC gaming is still not plug and play, but it's more much easier and accessible than it was, while console gaming has actually gotten less robust.

Since I have dipped into PC gaming a few times, I know that it's not as easy or accessible as apologists make it out to be. The moment I start asking why something doesn't work or wondering about performance, I get deluged with BS about how bad my specs are. When I start asking what I should by the conversation becomes a consulted mess because no one can agree.

Basically, people say what you say in these kinds of threads. But when you go to threads about tech or getting games to work, the reality is that there are issues. PC gaming is viable, and it can be awesome. But it's for people that expect that maintaining their rig is more than just turning it on.

As for console gaming, I jumped back in just as the Dreamcast was phasing out. It has gotten progressively more awesome with each generation. I seriously have no complaints. Calling it less robust is completely false. Indie gaming has come in, social aspects of gaming has improved substantially, and it is now as easy as plug and play to broadcast, share clips, and communicate with others.

I appreciate PC gaming, because the advances in console gaming would have never happened without it. But console gaming takes the cool features of PC gaming and bakes then down into something anyone can use.

I don't want PC gaming to die, and it's not close to doing so. But for the masses, PC gaming is a giant pain. And if PC gaming was in a golden age, the masses would be embracing it. And they just aren't.
 
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Well, 3 out of 4 Batman games isn't too bad.

Considering Asylum is the only good, non-open world crapfest one, we should even thanks Warner for this.

Interestingly enough, Baldur's Gate and Planescape (BI) had mediocre sales. Bioware didn't really get decent numbers until KOTOR or DA.

Not surprising, at least for P:T as the setting wasn't already popular with the D&D crowd at the time of its release - too different, both in concept and design; too abstract. The setting was finally canned years later but you could see it coming miles away, and I was really surprised to see that P:T was completed.
 
Nowhere near Golden Age. If you had lived through 90's PC gaming, where there were TONS of unique amazing games filling HALF of games retail stores in the U.S., and practically every PC game was doing stuff no console game could do. That was a golden age.

Companies like Origin, id, Epic Megagames, Maxis, LucasArts, etc at their absolute PEAK.

pretty much
people used to get excited for exclusive games that took advantage of pcs' power and kbm controls, now they get a big dick over playing console games at a higher resolution
 
This is very easy to notice if you spend any time at all going back to 80's/90's PC games. Even in subgenres that have properly returned, this major element is mostly absent.

Compare Realms of Arkania, with boots wearing down from simply walking in them a lot, to the permanent Bag of Holding you get in Pillars of Eternity. Even Shadowrun, with a consciously Pen and Paper style combat system, limits interaction and simulation severely; it plays more like Descent (the dungeon delving boardgame) than Shadowrun 5e.

This isn't really a problem; good games are good games. But it is the clear difference between the previous "golden age" and this one. Games are more game-y, even when they're follow-ups to games that were more simulation-y. I guess it's just where game designers' heads are right now. Perhaps too many GDC panels poison the mind? :P
Now that you mention it... feels like modern games are using every game psychological trick in the GDC book.
 
I almost wonder if Sony is concerned. PlayStation has historically been the exclusive platform of JRPGs, but now a lot of IPs, like Souls, Tales or Valkyria are suddenly venturing beyond Sony's borders onto Steam and finding success there. This stuff alone is the reason I didn't bother with the PS4 despite having every other PS platform before it, and I wonder if the JRPG Renaissance on Steam has affected anyone else's console buying decisions to a point that Sony would notice.

While it is true that the PC is getting more JRPGs than before, there is still no guarantee that all of them will be ported. If you mainly play JRPGs you more or less need to own a console if you want to make sure that you'll be able to play most/all of them. Therefore I doubt that there are a lot of JRPG-fans, who will ditch the PS4 for a gaming PC only because of Tales, Valkyria Chronicles or the Souls games, it's just too risky. This is actually the reason why PC gaming is mostly irrelevant for me outside of Visual Novels. Most of the games I am looking forward to have not been announced for PC. Some of them might make it in the future but why should I take the risk?
The JRPG Renaissance on Steam is cool for those players who occasionally like to play JRPGs though so I am happy that the genre seems to grow on that platform.
 
I almost wonder if Sony is concerned. PlayStation has historically been the exclusive platform of JRPGs, but now a lot of IPs, like Souls, Tales or Valkyria are suddenly venturing beyond Sony's borders onto Steam and finding success there. This stuff alone is the reason I didn't bother with the PS4 despite having every other PS platform before it, and I wonder if the JRPG Renaissance on Steam has affected anyone else's console buying decisions to a point that Sony would notice.

Sony will be fine. They have their stable of in-house IP's they can get some people with, and not everyone is going to build a PC despite the numerous benefits of doing so.

Same with Nintendo. It's Microsoft that should be worried because they have 2 "popular" but declining in popularity series IP's that could and should be on PC (which is in their wheelhouse) but won't, because they're worried that'd kill their console sales.
 
Eh...I don't think so. PC Gaming still has a bunch a problems, and year-in, year-out there's always one BIG stinker of a version of a game that sticks out and makes everything look terrible. Last year it was AC Unity. This year it's Batman AC. If I had to guess next year's game? Probably Street Fighter 5, as much as I hate to say it.

PC Gaming still isn't as cheap as it needs to be to get a bigger piece of the gaming pie, and sales of PC games seems to have slowed over the past couple of years versus years prior. We're inching closer to a true monopoly by both Nvidia and ESPECIALLY Steam in terms of hardware and software, which would be a disaster, unless AMD, GOG, Origin, etc. get their collective shit together when it comes to service.

I also think that if Microsoft got out of the console race or significantly declined, that it'd hurt the presence of Western Developers since it'd mean western budgets of games would probably come down without that significant Western presence in the space, unless someone like Amazon or Apple got into the space, which I doubt will happen. Whether we like Microsoft or not, their rise really catapulted western game sales on consoles.
 
i can now confirm that we are not in a pc golden age after looking up a list of rts games for 2015 and saw the top two consisting of age of empires ii hd and starcraft 2.
 
Eh...I don't think so. PC Gaming still has a bunch a problems, and year-in, year-out there's always one BIG stinker of a version of a game that sticks out and makes everything look terrible. Last year it was AC Unity. This year it's Batman AC. If I had to guess next year's game? Probably Street Fighter 5, as much as I hate to say it..

Didn't Unity run bad on all platforms though?
 
We've been in a PC golden age for years. I understand the cost argument, but for anyone with discretionary income it's obviously the best platform.
 
Since I have dipped into PC gaming a few times, I know that it's not as easy or accessible as apologists make it out to be. The moment I start asking why something doesn't work or wondering about performance, I get deluged with BS about how bad my specs are. When I start asking what I should by the conversation becomes a consulted mess because no one can agree.

Basically, people say what you say in these kinds of threads. But when you go to threads about tech or getting games to work, the reality is that there are issues. PC gaming is viable, and it can be awesome. But it's for people that expect that maintaining their rig is more than just turning it on.

As for console gaming, I jumped back in just as the Dreamcast was phasing out. It has gotten progressively more awesome with each generation. I seriously have no complaints. Calling it less robust is completely false. Indie gaming has come in, social aspects of gaming has improved substantially, and it is now as easy as plug and play to broadcast, share clips, and communicate with others.

I appreciate PC gaming, because the advances in console gaming would have never happened without it. But console gaming takes the cool features of PC gaming and bakes then down into something anyone can use.

I don't want PC gaming to die, and it's not close to doing so. But for the masses, PC gaming is a giant pain. And if PC gaming was in a golden age, the masses would be embracing it. And they just aren't.

PC gaming dwarfs consoles.
 
PCs had their golden age when they actually catered to a different market than console gamers. The strategy, simulation, adventure, RPG, flight sim catalogue gave the PC a creative distinctiveness that it no longer has. Now a PC is a machine that has high res ports of games everyone else has.
 
I'm convinced that the RTS's recovery was halted by the rise of the Moba. That said, the Total Wars series is still strong.

PCs had their golden age when they actually catered to a different market than console gamers. The strategy, simulation, adventure, RPG, flight sim catalogue gave the PC a creative distinctiveness that it no longer has. Now a PC is a machine that has high res ports of games everyone else has.

This sentiment has been repeated throughout this thread while lists of games countering it have been posted again and again in this same thread. There are strategy games, there are sims, rpgs, flight simulators, mobas, mmos, pc exclusive indie titles among the console ports. You don't have to dig much deeper than the damn Steam home page to see this.
 
Since I have dipped into PC gaming a few times, I know that it's not as easy or accessible as apologists make it out to be. The moment I start asking why something doesn't work or wondering about performance, I get deluged with BS about how bad my specs are. When I start asking what I should by the conversation becomes a consulted mess because no one can agree.

Basically, people say what you say in these kinds of threads. But when you go to threads about tech or getting games to work, the reality is that there are issues. PC gaming is viable, and it can be awesome. But it's for people that expect that maintaining their rig is more than just turning it on.

As for console gaming, I jumped back in just as the Dreamcast was phasing out. It has gotten progressively more awesome with each generation. I seriously have no complaints. Calling it less robust is completely false. Indie gaming has come in, social aspects of gaming has improved substantially, and it is now as easy as plug and play to broadcast, share clips, and communicate with others.

I appreciate PC gaming, because the advances in console gaming would have never happened without it. But console gaming takes the cool features of PC gaming and bakes then down into something anyone can use.

I don't want PC gaming to die, and it's not close to doing so. But for the masses, PC gaming is a giant pain. And if PC gaming was in a golden age, the masses would be embracing it. And they just aren't.

"But it's for people that expect that maintaining their rig is more than just turning it on."

I completely agree with this, but as a 90's PC gamer you must agree that it has never been easier to game on PC. People act like you spend more time tweaking the settings and getting the games to boot, or that 50% of the games don't work, and that's false.

And yes, consoles have definitely gotten more complex. You know what's something that I never had to worry with the Dreamcast? Clearing out the cache, cloud saves not working, online/downloads being crap (This isn't entirely true, but to be fair, the Dreamcast was ahead of its time, current gen has no excuse, it's 2015), patching both pre and post install, licensing errors etc.

It's still obviously easier to use a console than a PC, but if someone only makes an ounce of effort then PC gaming is doable.
 
PCs had their golden age when they actually catered to a different market than console gamers. The strategy, simulation, adventure, RPG, flight sim catalogue gave the PC a creative distinctiveness that it no longer has. Now a PC is a machine that has high res ports of games everyone else has.

This. I used to play all sorts of strategy, simulation, adventure, and RPG games on my PC and with the exception of the the latest releases from Firaxis, Creative Assembly, Paradox, Larian, Obsidian, inXile, Frontier, and Red Thread Games and obviously further discounting all of the smaller indie productions that have recently popped up, there literally isn't a single game to play in any of the genres on PC. It's just a tormented wasteland out there.
 
Yeah, but it ran ESPECIALLY bad on PC. Not as bad as Arkham City, though. You could also say the Remasters running poorly on PC is a problem as well, when the originals didn't.

The hell are you on? Or where you on? Unity ran a LOT betetr on PC than on consoles, and that;s at launch, now a days, the difference is night and day. consoles still have more pop-in than a whack-a-mole game, and drop frames like a mother.
 
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