This genuinely makes me less scared of PC gaming. It definitely sounds like things are getting less nightmarish. Still really hoping for a Steambox plug-and-play type product to materialise, but maybe in the next couple of years I'll start looking at PCs seriously for games. Right now I've put too much money into consoles to want to make the jump.
For those who refuse to game on a PC, what holds you back?
- Thread starter Hollywood Hitman
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This genuinely makes me less scared of PC gaming. It definitely sounds like things are getting less nightmarish. Still really hoping for a Steambox plug-and-play type product to materialise, but maybe in the next couple of years I'll start looking at PCs seriously for games. Right now I've put too much money into consoles to want to make the jump.
GhostTrick
Banned
I hope you werent disappointed when you bought the book "To kill a Mockingbird" to discover it wasnt actually giving you advices.
The Albatross
Member
I don't so much 'refuse' to game on PC, but I just don't own a gaming-capable PC. I'm a developer who primarily develops on MacOS and Linux, and so I don't own a PC. My monitor is the Apple Thunderbolt Display, so for me to get a gaming capable PC, I'd have to get a new monitor as well (the thunderbolt display only has Thunderbolt in for display).
I'm considering building a PC this summer, though I've considered doing that almost every summer for 5 years and I've yet to do it. If I could sell my Apple Thunderbolt Display for $400, and my Mac Mini for $500, I'd do it in a jiff. I'm also not against Windows at all, either, I like Windows 10 and it's my primary OS at work (though I'm on Linux like 70% of the day via a VM). definitely not against PC gaming either, from about 1996 - 2006 I was primarily a PC gamer.
I have some other slight qualms that are preventing me from jumping into PC gaming, but in these threads, mostly everybody gets so defensive it's not worth sharing them.
I'm considering building a PC this summer, though I've considered doing that almost every summer for 5 years and I've yet to do it. If I could sell my Apple Thunderbolt Display for $400, and my Mac Mini for $500, I'd do it in a jiff. I'm also not against Windows at all, either, I like Windows 10 and it's my primary OS at work (though I'm on Linux like 70% of the day via a VM). definitely not against PC gaming either, from about 1996 - 2006 I was primarily a PC gamer.
I have some other slight qualms that are preventing me from jumping into PC gaming, but in these threads, mostly everybody gets so defensive it's not worth sharing them.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
To each, their own I guess, but these seem odd to me.
1. Use another OS if you hate windows.
2. Most everything supports Xbox controllers these days, complete with button prompts. Outside PC exclusives designed for kb/m of course. So really only 2 schemes to worry about. I mostly only play things I can use my Xbox Elite pad with.
3. I can see the publisher exclusive storefronts being annoying. But having multiple store fronts to buy multiplatform games is great as it creates competition and drives down digital game prices.
4. Bad for devs I guess, but I'm all about getting my games as cheap as possible. Especially the AAA ones put out by giant corporations. Indies I'll make an effort to buy full price to support for things I'm truly interested in day one.
I don't refuse to use PC, and I even have a SteamLink, I just vastly prefer gaming on a console.
Obviously I prefer couch gaming, hence the SteamLink, but even with that, the UI kinda sucks, I had issues with sound, I still have issues with controller lag for multiplayer games. Console gaming is just more straightforward.
That being said, I'm not above spending 8 hours straight playing Civilization.
Obviously I prefer couch gaming, hence the SteamLink, but even with that, the UI kinda sucks, I had issues with sound, I still have issues with controller lag for multiplayer games. Console gaming is just more straightforward.
That being said, I'm not above spending 8 hours straight playing Civilization.
LordRaptor
Member
Because they've come to a film enthusiast site and are bragging how they've never heard of Truffaut but Michael Bay is fucking boss
theangrypirate
Member
Same.
Older PC currently, no.
I have a large enough backlog on my PS4.
There's nothing from the last 30 years that I want to pay bad enough that it's worth several hundred dollars more.
brickarts295
Member
I'm Sony's and Nintendo's bitch at the moment. I'm also a big Gamefly user so I rent a lot of the new games, many of them during launch week.
So basically there's really no reason to play on PC if I already played most of them by the time they get a good discount.
A big personal property so the Steam sales. Back when I wants to get into PC gaming I ended up buying like 20 games during one of the Christmas sales. By now I have only beaten 1 of them. And I have 157 titles in total.
With console games, it's $45-$60 per game, so I always put those first to beat to get my money's worth and then I either keep it or traded it in.
I like PC gaming but I just prefer consoles a bit more even if I have to miss out on 1080p/60fps.
So basically there's really no reason to play on PC if I already played most of them by the time they get a good discount.
A big personal property so the Steam sales. Back when I wants to get into PC gaming I ended up buying like 20 games during one of the Christmas sales. By now I have only beaten 1 of them. And I have 157 titles in total.
With console games, it's $45-$60 per game, so I always put those first to beat to get my money's worth and then I either keep it or traded it in.
I like PC gaming but I just prefer consoles a bit more even if I have to miss out on 1080p/60fps.
shawnbuddy
Member
I think most of the old complaints are just no longer valid. My PC starts in Steam Big Picture Mode and I play my games on my TV using an Xbox One controller. It feels as much like a console experience as I want it to, except that I can't wake my PC by pushing the controller button, I guess. And the better graphics and increased customization.
Me too, i prefer quality games above strong graphical games. Thats why i prefer nintendo above others. I'll make an exception for pc. I think for multiplay or as core platform is pc still the winner. Specially blizzard games.
For me it's the opposite. I play on PC so now I associate PC with entertainment so I'm horribly unproductive when I actually have to work on a computer. Fixed the problem by switching to consoles. As an added benefit I can also play games (like Skyrim on PS3) that just work without having to Google search fan patches using 5 different parameters to play some ugly looking indie game that's never leaving early access.
Jaguar Victory
Member
That was a good deal. Every time I think about it I look, start to pick the parts I want (i7, 1070) and cringe at the price it spits out. In my experience manufacturer PCs like that make upgradeability an issue don't they? Like soldered on bullshit?
Why do all of these threads devolve into horseshit like this? I'm sure there is a good discussion to be had on this, but posts like these are not helping anything. When it gets into insulting people, you need to step back and think before posting, or you ain't going to last long here. Edit: And it's over...
I don't understand why it's an all or nothing affair anyway. i enjoy playing Witcher 3 in 4K and dark souls 3 at 60+ fps. If you really are hard up for exclusives buy a PS4 also. I did. But believe me, PC is where it's at for multi platform games.
That's understandable. Should have made my post more clear that it was directed at people that do have old hardware lying around.
This i can relate to!
twdnewh_k
Member
It really is. Very surprised at many of the replies; I feel a lot of them are completely out of touch. Very sad.
Goose_Se7en
Banned
This is a solid post as to why you prefer PC over console and although I am a console gamer I completely agree with you. Your post isn't about "hey graphics, framerates, graphics etc". It's about the fact that you feel -that as a console owner- every generation you're getting screwed over on your investment. As someone who purchased more than 100+ games last gen on PS3 and 120+ on PS4 thus far and I can't play my PS3 library on my Ps4 and there is no guarantee I can play my PS4 library on a future PS5.
You make a very valid and for me eye opening point RedSwirl. Good shit.
The Albatross
Member
yeah, this is probably what I'd end up doing. I need to figure out a way to do both. Ideally if I built a new PC, I'd build a PC that I can use for development and gaming. My office is the same room as my big TV so I could wire it up to a new PC where my desk is, but I'd have to run about 50' of wire through the ceiling, and I wonder if the delay of that much HDMI would be too great?
You need to question yourself if you prefer fps game with keyboard and mouse or controller. I think when you'll choose controller, you'll prefer console above pc.
It isn't wrong, most mainstream players only play on consoles. Its just how far you draw the line
The disinformation around PCs that still exists is amazing. I saw the exact same thing in the thread about the NES Classic getting unofficial support for ROM uploading. Ignoring the parts where it was annoying that it was pulling the thread slightly off topic, when people brought up the Raspberry Pi I saw complaints about how it was so hard and no one wanted to set up a bunch of emulators. With RetroPie it's unnecessary to setup a bunch of emulators, that's the point and appeal. When someone else brought up the Nvidia Shield devices there were a couple of comments about needing a PC to stream from and how that was also bad. This is false because Shield devices can run emulators natively.
People who are ignorant about these things have zero clue how they work and if you do understand them it's hard to imagine how daunting it is them.
People who are ignorant about these things have zero clue how they work and if you do understand them it's hard to imagine how daunting it is them.
EventHorizon
Member
I responded to a comment criticizing PS4 games for not being "cutting edge hardware", and you somehow feel that mentioning three games that are as graphically intensive as a toaster contradicts me. <facepalm>
Once again, the comment I was responding to mentioned "cutting edge hardware" specifically. I then proceeded to show that that had no effect on either the number of top rated games or the number of top rated games that would make any use of that cutting edge hardware.
The point I'm making should be clear but let me spell it out. The power advantage of the PC doesn't mean much. If it did then PCs would dominate in reviews. It doesn't. Let's look at those third party games you based your argument on to see if this mythical power advantage shows up.
Code:
Metacritic 2016
PC PS4 Title
92 91 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine
91 90 Overwatch
88 89 Battlefield 1
86 89 Titanfall 2
73 77 Call of Duty: Infinite WarfareI really don't accept your argument. You contradict yourself. See how easy it is to have a fact free comment. See above for actual proof that power doesn't matter.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Yeah, HDMI longer than 15-20 feet can sometimes cause problems. I'd go with ethernet to a Steam Link probably at 50 feet.
Not necessarily "refuse" to play (because I used to play often on my gaming laptop) but here are the reasons why I don't play on PC anymore:
I suck with a mouse and keyboard.
Yes, I understand that you can hook up a 360 controller to your PC. I've used it many times, but sometimes controllers don't work with certain games and I don't want to mess with drivers or other types of software. Plus, FPS games are meant to be played on a mouse and keyboard and I just can't get a handle for the keyboard. I've tried and failed many times. I just suck at it, unfortunately.
I don't want to mess with drivers/software.
I still haven't gotten Portal/Portal 2 to work on my laptop. It's more than capable of running it but because of some weird software issue/bug, I can't play past the first couple of minutes without it freezing. Still haven't beaten Portal 2 because of this issue.
I like physical boxes.
I understand PC has boxes but I've never had a hankering for having a collection of PC boxes, not sure why. All digital is kind of irritating for me, though there are many benefits.
I like my PSN trophies more than Steam...trophies? Cards?
My PSN trophy level is more important than whatever achievements I get on Steam. If I have the choice to get a third-party AAA game, I'm probably getting it on my PS4, unless I find a really good deal on Humble Bundle or r/gamedeals
Those are a few reasons. I really want to like PC gaming, I just don't think it's for me.
Edit:
I don't really care about FPS and bleeding edge graphical stuff.
If it's at 30 FPS, I'm okay with it. I guess maybe I haven't played enough 60 FPS games to be bothered by it!
I suck with a mouse and keyboard.
Yes, I understand that you can hook up a 360 controller to your PC. I've used it many times, but sometimes controllers don't work with certain games and I don't want to mess with drivers or other types of software. Plus, FPS games are meant to be played on a mouse and keyboard and I just can't get a handle for the keyboard. I've tried and failed many times. I just suck at it, unfortunately.
I don't want to mess with drivers/software.
I still haven't gotten Portal/Portal 2 to work on my laptop. It's more than capable of running it but because of some weird software issue/bug, I can't play past the first couple of minutes without it freezing. Still haven't beaten Portal 2 because of this issue.
I like physical boxes.
I understand PC has boxes but I've never had a hankering for having a collection of PC boxes, not sure why. All digital is kind of irritating for me, though there are many benefits.
I like my PSN trophies more than Steam...trophies? Cards?
My PSN trophy level is more important than whatever achievements I get on Steam. If I have the choice to get a third-party AAA game, I'm probably getting it on my PS4, unless I find a really good deal on Humble Bundle or r/gamedeals
Those are a few reasons. I really want to like PC gaming, I just don't think it's for me.
Edit:
I don't really care about FPS and bleeding edge graphical stuff.
If it's at 30 FPS, I'm okay with it. I guess maybe I haven't played enough 60 FPS games to be bothered by it!
ScientificPizza
Banned
This is not true. Everything on the PC auto patches in the exact same way that they do on consoles.
The only time this might be a problem is for GPU drivers, but even then if you have an nvidia card you can just get the geforce experience and then boom: auto patches
If you really think patching is that archaic you probably haven't used a PC since 1998
The Albatross
Member
Amazing.
How well does Steam Link work? I'm not playing a lot of twitch-movement games... Though some of the games I'm interested in on PC (Salt and Sanctuary for instance) can be negatively impacted by delay/lag. Also FWIW, I don't care about anything greater than 1080p and 60fps.
Mihos
Gold Member
well, actually, PC gamers are actually the mainstream... it is the consoles that are niche by comparison. Both in revenue and player count. There are games on PC that have more players on just their one game than there are PS4 owners in total
LordRaptor
Member
My apologies, I can't follow the speed at which you change your arguments.
LukasTaves
Member
Here's how my experience with voice chat on xbone goes:
If I have friends that are playing a game that I want to play I invite them to a group, we start playing together and 99% of the time someone that is friends with them also join our group, because everyone in our friendlist can see we are in a group playing the same game. And then you add those people to your friendlist because you had a good time playing with them. And then, some other day, you can see them or they see you playing the game and they will want to hook up.
There was an closed alpha for Sea of Thieves this saturday, all it took me was a look at my friends to see ome guy was playing it, turns out we was already in a party of 3 just waiting for a full house, and we went on to play the game together the entire time.
And it's great for people you don't know as well, I spent the wekeend solo queueing in gigantic and ended up making two new friends, that we met in a couple matches, so we queue up (two different groups at different times) and I end up having a way greater time than just solo queueing.
And that's my experience even with niche games like awesomenauts that had a very small community on xbone when it launched.
And what about games that you don't even know people are playing? Now live supports looking for groups, I had huge sucess finding people to play with me on the clubs I participate, even for custom halo coop sessions with skulls.
That's the beauty of having everything unified, when the system promotes hooking up together and offers all the tools for you to find yourselves.
On the other hand on Pc I had time where a group of real friends combined to get a game so we cou'd play together, but it was so much hassle having to set up separate chat from game sessions and that's the issue with separate services, something might come up in one of them, for two behind a bad nat can play together but for some reason can't connect to the chat using another service, or vice versa. Not that network issues doen't happen on console, but their are easier to troubleshoot, because you only have to do it once.
I never used discord, so I can't speak for it's quality, but I don't see how it can offer a revolutionary experience compared to what I have on xbox, where the voice itself sounds pristine clear, where the friends, party, chat, club and gamehub functions are tied together and the system promotes discoverability and hooking up together to play.
TechnicPuppet
Nothing! I said nothing!
I looked into building a PC to play Civ 6 and the costs are ridiculous to me. For an RX480 alone with nothing else it was like £250. I think that card is equivalent to the PS4 Pro roughly. I would still need everything else as well.
When was the last time you played a PC game? 10 years ago? Steam solved all of this long ago. In addition, the download speed from steam is FAR greater than than PSN. I downloaded Final Fantasy 13 in less than 15 minutes on Steam a couple of days ago.
If PC was like this at all, I would agree but it's not and this is outright misleading.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
I don't have one so can't give personal experience. In general, reviews/impressions using Steam Link via ethernet are very good, via wifi is more mixed/negative as you're going to get lag and other issues unless your signal strength is excellent and interference from neighbor's wifi and other sources minimal.
It's crazy to think that. While the most sales 80% or so, goes to fifa and call of duty is a clear signal what market console is targeting for. While most pc games would be a blizzard game.
Console is mainstream focus and that doesn't mean that core gmes can't enjoy it. But it's the way it is.
Yeah things are very different now than they used to be. Steam and services like it have made things much simpler, like installing mods from the Steam workshop with just a click of a button. Unfortunately every mod isn't available there ofcourse, but I think Nexusmods has their own software to make things more convenient. And atleast most games will recognize your hardware and set the graphical settings for you, if not you can use Nvidia Experience for that. There's so many options and possibilities to PC gaming that it can seem overwhelming and intimidating, but tinkering isn't mandatory. I've teached older people to use PC in their basic needs. There's always the initial fright of maybe breaking something or confusion by everything they see when booting up a PC. But quickly they learn to pay the bills online for example. Booting up a game in Steam isn't any harder than that. Maybe with older people who didn't grow up using this kind of tech it's the thought of "nerds". That you really need to be tech savy and highly educated to use a PC. Which isn't true ofcourse. I'm 32 and we used PC:s even in school when I was 10 or less. To education purposes and for gaming too! Carmen Sandiego was the shit. For Americans I think it was Oregon Trail.
Via Ethernet it's awesome. Wifi worked ok, but I wouldn't trust it. I've played several games all the way through on Steam Link and it's great if you have the right setup.
The Albatross
Member
That's awesome. I've got my whole house wired and it's fairly efficient wiring, so this would be a good option for me. My theoretical PC would only be 1 network switch away from the theoretical Steam Link.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
You really don't want to be pushing Steam Link over wireless as an option, but even moreso than that don't push Miracast or similar based TV's as an alternative option, even with the latest models the latency / input lag on these over wireless is so atrocious you can measure it in seconds, not milliseconds.
I have the latest model of Samsung Smart TV (bought just before Christmas), the lag is so bad over wireless display that you can bearly use the Windows Desktop, let alone game with it.
Fine to stream things to, once you have got over that lag and compensate enough to launch your content, but for interactive use? - Forget it.
Fortunately, the Steam Link supports AC wireless and 5GHz. If you have a router or access point that supports AC / 5Ghz, you can get more bandwidth than a wired gigabit connection. Latency for me is usually on-par with a wired connection.
shawnbuddy
Member
That's about the maximum reliable length you can run HDMI. I don't think there would be delay, but reliability results might not be too great and there could be signal degradation.
The fact that you acknowledge that PC games aren't your typical console AAA shooter or AAA game in general justifies the reason why some people don't care about PC exclusives. I for one much prefer the typical AAA gaming experience. Therefore why wouldn't I want to game on a platform that tended to get more exclusive games of that type.
Let's take this out of the gaming fanboy area a bit. Suppose I like superhero movie blockbusters and I have the option of buying a movie subscription to one of two theaters. However one of them offers more superhero blockbusters while the other offers more indy dramas. Guess which one I would buy?
I'd buy the one giving me access to more superhero movie blockbusters. I would hope that wouldn't be a controversial decision. However when the same thought process is applied to gaming, somehow that logic no longer applies. ¯\_(ツ_/¯
There's no fanboyism here, stop pretending there is to further your argument.
There are plenty of genres on offer on PC, far more than console, that's an objective fact. If you like certain games from certain developers, then by all means, stick with consoles.
If you like a specific big budget genre, PC still has that in spades.
MoonsaultSlayer
Member
Ease of use and everything catered to what I own. I've had issues with controller drivers and compatibility and no luck with the DS fix for Dark Souls.
I'm good for now until a must play exclusive arrives.
I'm good for now until a must play exclusive arrives.
D
Deleted member 752119
Unconfirmed Member
Very true, but signal strength and interference are still an issue for many. 5ghz is great if the signal is good, but I had to get a wifi extender to even use wifi on the other side of our 4 bedroom, 1500ish single story house though. Just too much interference in the walls/from neighbor's wifi etc. I guess. The 5ghz signal drops out around the middle of the house (router is in the mancave on one far side), 2ghz signal was super weak in the bedroom on the opposite side of the house--so needed the repeater to get wifi there on our phones/tablets/kindles in bed.
I love pc gaming. But i mostly game on console right now for two reasons:
Money - currently a full time student so can't justify a good rig like now
Media - physical ownership of games is important to me. I do buy digital ( and have a sizable steam library) but prefer physical media when possible.
Money - currently a full time student so can't justify a good rig like now
Media - physical ownership of games is important to me. I do buy digital ( and have a sizable steam library) but prefer physical media when possible.
mitverachtung
Banned
I was a PC gamer with high-end rigs until 2011. I played over 2000hrs Counter-Strike (1.6 and Source), a lot of Battlefield, World of WarCraft and so on.
Then I switched to Xbox 360 and now im playing on the PlayStation. And there are many things i really don't miss:
- Steam
- Origin
- U-Play
- Windows App Store (there was no Windows App Store in 2011, lol)
- drivers
- bad ports
- cheating online communities
- lack of those great console exclusives
and a lot of other minor things.
Then I switched to Xbox 360 and now im playing on the PlayStation. And there are many things i really don't miss:
- Steam
- Origin
- U-Play
- Windows App Store (there was no Windows App Store in 2011, lol)
- drivers
- bad ports
- cheating online communities
- lack of those great console exclusives
and a lot of other minor things.
- Status
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