4x dead. PC games dying. Gave away PC. :(

[Iron Giant]

Well, I donated my PC. Its that useless and a volunteer organization I do some work for needed a new PC so I rebuilt and donated it (I swapped the Geforce4 card out though http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )

4x is dead. Imperium Galactica became "Nexus: the homeworld wannabe" so I'm not going to buy it. I can play SE4 on my wife's 500mhz. I'll buy a new PC next summer when SE5 comes out. In the meantime, I need another hobby. Bowling anyone?

Will I ever play another game that keeps me up with the "one more turn" syndrome?

Is there a patch in the works for Starfury? I thought there was one and it might add some "things"? I only bought Starfury to support SE5 but it was ok to play through.

Any word on SE5? Out next summer?

Xbox gives me a gaming "fix", but it doesn't keep me up late... wait, maybe thats a good thing?

[Phoenix-D]

There was one patch for Starfury with rumors of a possible another later.

[Instar]

Do you have XBox live? Its great, except for the cursing high pitched 13 year olds who think they're great. They populate Halo 2 servers sooo much...

[Instar]

Oh, and PC games are not dying! The PC is a major platform. What platforms has Half Life 2 came out on? Thats right, just the PC! How about CnC Generals? Battle for Middle Earth? The Sims2? Which platform did Doom3 come out for first?
At the same time, console games are a major platform as well. Sure, I really cannot afford to support both hobbies, but I have fun with both.

[Azselendor]

The problem with PC games is that they are trying to be console games too much these days.

Starfury, on the otherhand, would make a neat port over to console games.

[Instar]

How so? Sure, Deus Ex 2 was an obvious PC/console game, but games like CnC Generals doesn't translate to a console very well at all. And the Sims Urbz thing looks just plain stupid.

[Azselendor]

Those kinds of games, are what remains to PC games. I'm talking about that typically require an average of 8 buttons or less to operate. I know more games on the PC use many many buttons, but if those buttons can be put into toggle menus - it's better as a console game.

For two common two examples, Starfury and DO would make better console games than PC games I feel. The loss of customizable options is great, but then again, that is why they are PC games http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Instar]

Hmm, I see what you mean. But the PC is a tremendous market that developers ignore at their peril. I think that consoles just open up more of a market for developers. The PC isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[Azselendor]

At the rate consoles are developing, I wouldn't be surprised if they soon had more in common with gaming PC's than thier predessors

[Instar]

Klvino [ORB] said:
At the rate consoles are developing, I wouldn't be surprised if they soon had more in common with gaming PC's than thier predessors


Well, the first XBox was pretty much a stripped down PC with custom parts. The processor was an Intel, and the graphics chip was a nVidia 35 or 40 series, I think. Where they got more performance was through a really fat bus and things like that, I think. Xenon (codename for XBox 2) will use an IBM/Mac processor and ATI graphics chip, both of which are still computer style parts. Microsoft is aiming for a convergence of digital technology, so it is no surprise.
The GameCube uses an ATI chip, IIRC. Despite this, the GC is teh suck http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[DeadZone]

Oi, I like my GC http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

PCs are more customizable and easier to upgrade too
Consoles tend to be, here it is, be happy with it, if you want something better, you tend to have to buy a completely new one

PC Games have better support because you get patches, mods, better Online play, etc
Console Games tend to run better because there is only one type of machine its running on, because PCs are upgradable, devs push the specs because they know, sooner or later, something will come out that runs there game fine, you dont have this option with Consoles (which is why games run fine on all consoles, but some PCs will struggle to run some games)

At the end of the day, consoles are for people with little time or who are simple folk
PCs are for people with time or like the freedom (like me... on both accounts there lol)

[Hugh Manatee]

and then tere's the handheld market...

*hugs advance wars*

[Instar]

DeadZoneMDx said:

PC Games have better support because you get patches, mods, better Online play, etc



Exhibit A: XBox Live. The experience of XBox Live is tremendous. It patches games, distributes extra content, and is amazing Online play.

[DeadZone]

Ok, how about this one then

Start-up time

PCs = Start up the machine, then insert disk, play, eject disk, insert disk, play, etc

Consoles = Insert disk, start up the machine, play, shut down machine, eject disk, insert disk, start up machine, play, etc

One huge advantage PCs have over consoles

Just to note, I wont, in a million years, touch the XBox (Im one of them anti-microsoft people)

[Hugh Manatee]

DeadZoneMDx said:
Ok, how about this one then

Start-up time

PCs = Start up the machine, then insert disk, play, eject disk, insert disk, play, etc

Consoles = Insert disk, start up the machine, play, shut down machine, eject disk, insert disk, start up machine, play, etc

One huge advantage PCs have over consoles

Just to note, I wont, in a million years, touch the XBox (Im one of them anti-microsoft people)


Unles you are yalking about a Final Fantasy type game or console based Myst/Riven you included WAY to many steps in the Console startup time, and that seems like a trivial argument to me to be a "huge advantage". It goes more like Power up, open tray, insert disc, watch 3 second load screen and play, turn off when board turn back on and skip steps 2-4.

For PC it's like: Power-up PC(depending on machine this can take 30 seconds-almost 2 minutes), place CD in tray, wait for auto load, if auto load crashes, use the icon, or comand line to launch the game, game launches, but crashes immeadiately due to memory error, reboot and repeat steps to launch again, play for 20 minutes and crash because of 9X-XP compatibility or glitch caused by rushed programming with the logic " get it out the door we can fix it later wit teh patch", Download said patch(takes 5minutes-2 hours), instal patch, play game, experence severe joystick/gamepad glitches and realize there isaconflict in the game with your joystick drivers, update joystick drivers(20 minutes), play for another half hour till video card causes glitch, update video card drivers(5-20 minutes), play some moreand realize that your machine isn't powerful enough to run this game at full settings and 100-300 dollars will have to be spent and sensative components will have to be installed.....

[Instar]

DeadZoneMDx said:
Ok, how about this one then

Start-up time

PCs = Start up the machine, then insert disk, play, eject disk, insert disk, play, etc

Consoles = Insert disk, start up the machine, play, shut down machine, eject disk, insert disk, start up machine, play, etc

One huge advantage PCs have over consoles

Just to note, I wont, in a million years, touch the XBox (Im one of them anti-microsoft people)


Too bad, because you missed out on some truly tremendous games. Halo (1 and 2), Ninja Gaiden, etc...
In fact, for not having played Ninja Gaiden, I curse you as the unholy one. Ninja Gaiden is just that darn good.

[DeadZone]

Wow Hugh, I take it you have had some bad problems in the past
Ive never had any of these problems ever (Some EA games excluded, and Ubisoft sometimes)

For my PC: Power up: Rarely longer than 20seconds, place CD in tray, I have auto run disabled by pref., so hit exe. and thats it, I play until Im bored or wants/needs to do something else
IF I do need a patch, well, its a perfect excuse to do some house work/something else for a few minutes
And plus, like instar said, XBox is also using patches, and they wont take any longer to d/l cos they are on the same connection after all

As long as your OS is configured properly and is 2k or XP, you tend to be fine http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif (Yes its microsoft, so I will agree that it can be a big pain in the rear at times)

And anyway I was referring to playing different games, not the same one over http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/tongue.gif

[Instar]

My PC boots up in less than 10 seconds. A 10k RPM SATA hard drive can do that. Well, that and a gigabyte of RAM. And a 2.4C P4.
One PC I had took longer than 5 minutes to get all the services fully running (I was running DB software, the 3 server packages needed for a complete install of a product I was developing against, and everything else needed) I could go get coffee in less time.
Edit:
Oh, my PC can probably boot in about 5s or so. It is pretty quick.

[Kamog]

One of my coworkers has a PC that sometimes takes half an hour to boot up, because it often starts up with a blue screen of death and he has to keep shutting it down and powering it back up until it works. Then it runs scandisk which takes a few minutes. It's a Compaq running Windows 98. The computer tech guy has given up trying to fix it.

[mottlee]

sounds like time to replace the PC, has he tryed to reinstall windows????

[Baron Munchausen]

Kamog said:
One of my coworkers has a PC that sometimes takes half an hour to boot up, because it often starts up with a blue screen of death and he has to keep shutting it down and powering it back up until it works. Then it runs scandisk which takes a few minutes. It's a Compaq running Windows 98. The computer tech guy has given up trying to fix it.



If you change the settings when it's up and running to NOT boot the GUI, you can probably get it functioning faster. Lots of minor hardware glitches that are invisible at the command prompt will turn up when Windows tries to load the protected mode drivers. The cause of the problems might well be a 'marginal' component that needs to warm up a bit in order to respond properly to the protected mode drivers. So, if the machine is set to only load the underlying DOS you will possibly be able to get it to boot up to that point with no problems. Then you can let it sit and 'warm up' for a few minutes beffore trying to start the GUI/protected mode shell.

[Combat Wombat]

Instar said:

DeadZoneMDx said:

PC Games have better support because you get patches, mods, better Online play, etc



Exhibit A: XBox Live. The experience of XBox Live is tremendous. It patches games, distributes extra content, and is amazing Online play.



Yes but Microsoft makes you pay for XBox Live where I play CS: Source and Space Empires IV for free and get updated content for free and there are mods for PC games and no mods for console games.

[Instar]

Combat Wombat said:

Instar said:

DeadZoneMDx said:

PC Games have better support because you get patches, mods, better Online play, etc



Exhibit A: XBox Live. The experience of XBox Live is tremendous. It patches games, distributes extra content, and is amazing Online play.



Yes but Microsoft makes you pay for XBox Live where I play CS: Source and Space Empires IV for free and get updated content for free and there are mods for PC games and no mods for console games.


True, you do pay for Live, but I view it as similar to a MMO PC game. Its not too expensive really.
Game mods, well, that is true. The best example of a console game being modded is Halo2, where you can download new gametypes that other players make. Other than that, there are only game content downloads, which is developer controlled.

[GMLocutus]

There's alot of good points to a PC which Consoles canot match.

First off, PC games i find are becoming more moddable which can never really be achieved on consoles due to the system requirements of the console.

PC's can be upgraded to better specs allowing the graphics and gameplay to improve. Yes this is positive but i feel this is also a major negative due to the fact that if you buy a console game you play it, if you buy a PC game, you may need to upgrade the PC to handle the game.

However the problem with consoles is, if you buy a console you're restricted to playing the games that can only work on that console, some companies may only release a game for a peticular console, whereas the PC gets benefits of getting them all, look at Halo, that was only for the Xbox, and then it was released on PC. Unless you owned a PC, you would have needed to buy an Xbox just to play it, or borrow a friends Xbox if they had one.

My preference will always be the PC, but i do enjoy playing my Xbox (or one of many others I have bought over the years)

[Sabin]

Eh...most consoles have their strong points, as does the PC. For example, the PC has the most/best "true" RPGs.(In the Planescape/Baldur/Fallout style), fan-games, emulation(to play SNES, N64, PSX and so on a PC) and so on...

Game Cube has the strongest name-brand of all of the consoles, more or less. Sure, the X-Box and Playstation II almost have icons, but they are generally fewer and not as well known as the Game Cube's. Also, the Game Cube has a very strong core of games. The downside, is the lack of multiplayer over the internet...but truth be told, I think the GC is the best-suited for people who like single-player, good games, and has friends nearby who like games.(The GC is portable, after all...) Also, while the Game Cube has a strong core of games, it lacks a significant number of total games.

The Playstation II probably has the widest selection of games, ranging from extremely poor to excellent. It definately has some of the more exotic games of the three current consoles: Amplitude, DDR series the Eyetoy, and so on. It has a somewhat decent multiplayer function, but it is pretty much a middle player.

The X-Box...well, truth be told I don't know much. I suppose it can be said to have poor to excellent games as well, but the controllers are generally poor.(I hear) It has on-line play though, which is somewhat dependable, circumstances willing.

Now, keep in mind...each of the consoles offer something depending on where you live, and what you like. Also, the American/English countries do not have the chance to play certain Asian games...say, from the Super Robot Taisen series, various hentai-games, SD Gundam and so on.