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Pc gaming has never been as good as it is today.

T4keD0wN

Member
Almost every? On top of my head, and only talking about AAA, HZD, Days Gone, GoW, Spiderman, U4, Atomic Heart, Forspoken, Gears 5 didn't have stutters. Sackboy, freaking Gothan Knights, Callisto Protocol all fixed...
Examples?

Gears, atomic heart, forspoken all have launched without shader compilation stutter to my knowledge so they werent really fixed.

HZD was fixed, but did it really have stuttering in the first place?.
God of war fixed memory leak the first month. fine
Callisto was fixed with 12/15 update ill give you that.
Sackboy was fixed. fine

Gotham knights? LOL, it should be named stutter knights.
Spider-man still has a memory leak.

Days gone?

Was this really Fixed? It still had this problem last year.
 
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Spyxos

Gold Member
Were your friends like super poor or super stupid?
Office computers would come with weird GPUs that met min spec and could launch games.
We were all playing on CRTs so the hunt for resolution or FPS wasnt even a thing.
You could literally walk into any office and when the receptionist was on her lunch break quickly install a game and be all good, hide the exe and tomorrow lunch time.....its on!

Pre DX9 yes it was possible to be left behind by games, but it was actually super rare.....like im trying to think of times pre 2000s that any major adcanvent happend that forced people to upgrade.....that was likely well before my time.
OpenGL was also a viable renderer for alot of games.
So i cant really think what latest games they couldnt play every 2-3 years.
I remember when some Wing Commander part came out for the pc none of my friends could play it and most of them had just 2-3 year old pcs.
 

Crayon

Member
the excuses people make to try and not even dualboot are ridiculous

Yeah. From my perspective and being frustrated with the hostility, it's complicated and though people have good reasons it's often not articulated very well. Speaking of that hostility, it's gotten better but I still feel like an outsider in the pc community here to this day. Go back ten years and check the reactions whenever linux and gaming were brought up. I'm scarred lol.

Steamdeck shows a lot of hope, though. You had some people piping up loud that they would install windows on it right away, but I think steamdeck proved the longstanding theory that most people don't choose an operating system, but use whatever camme on their stuff.
 
In many ways, PC gaming is awesome. But for AAA games, consoles have caught up or surpassed in many ways compared to the last two gens.
  • Reasonable hardware prices
  • 60 fps
  • Mid gen upgrades
  • Mostly smooth performance
 
In many ways, PC gaming is awesome. But for AAA games, consoles have caught up or surpassed in many ways compared to the last two gens.
  • Reasonable hardware prices
  • 60 fps
  • Mid gen upgrades
  • Mostly smooth performance

Outside of outliers, consoles have surpassed pc in those. Well, outside of 60 fps. Those are hit and miss. Possibly mid gen upgrades as well. Not sure if there will be a pro version of these things.
 

Crayon

Member
I remember when some Wing Commander part came out for the pc none of my friends could play it and most of them had just 2-3 year old pcs.

3. It took 8MB of ram and that cut a ton of people out as 4 was standard in many 486 computers. Another 4 was around $200 at the time so...

I couldn't play mechwarrior 2. :.< I would have been happy to play at 10fps. We tried and got it to boot to the menus but it would crash trying to load a mission. So I made due with earthseige.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
But the golden age was back when PC had exclusives, therefore an identity of its own.

Exclusives are what really make a platform especial

There’s thousands more exclusives on PC than consoles, not to mention those PC centric titles still play best on PC.

That’s not even getting into the old games PC plays that are no longer accessible on current consoles. The ones people beg for remasters, while PC needs no such thing.
 

Beechos

Member
I kinda disagree. While theres more games than ever to play nowadays due to console ports. Pc centric games seems to be getting less and less. There use to be fps/ rts/graphic adventure/wrpg banger after banger on pc.
 

GametimeUK

Member
PC gaming encompasses so much in terms of scope there is something for almost everyone.

Emulation, retro archives, aaa games with improvements over consoles, so many different keyboards and input methods, using ultrawide etc I think PC gaming is in a great space at the moment. It could be better and the AAA space is suffering from some stuttering ports lately (although I'm glad a lot of them are being addressed). Throw in decices like the steam deck, services like gamepass etc in my opinion its the ultimate gaming platform and consoles don't come remotely close to touching PC.

However, I will say Series X and PS5 are absolute beasts for the price and run games extremely well. It's great to have them around for sure for moments where PC versions of games are busted.
 

KellyNole

Member
PC is too easy today. The reason the 90s and early 2000s were special was just getting games to run. It wasn't just about the game, it was the process of tinkering until it works. One click no disc installs with installers automatically downloading all the extra required libraries, might as well buy a console. j/k.

Jokes aside, if you are into older games, modding, emulation, and like mouse and keyboard, PC is the way to go. If not, it is hard to justify PC when for the price of a decent gaming PC (roughly $1200 to $1500), you can get the XSX, PS5, and Switch and enjoy a lot of new games that will not be on PC (at least for a little while). Still could add a Mac mini for office/student work stuff and still come out about the same price.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
I kinda disagree. While theres more games than ever to play nowadays due to console ports. Pc centric games seems to be getting less and less. There use to be fps/ rts/graphic adventure/wrpg banger after banger on pc.
Huh? There are loads of all of those. More nowadays than some years ago after the revival of classic RPGs thanks to crowdfunding which has led to more games outside that like Original Sin 1, 2 and Baldur's Gate III among the still continuing Bethesda stuff (ok so they faltered lately but that's just one company anyway, it can happen and isn't down to any single platform) and games like The Witcher. They just also come to consoles by default (alongside PC also getting all console games it didn't use to, from fighting to jrpgs and stuff like souls and monster hunter of course). Maybe not so much RTS at the moment (though there are bangers like the Total War games but I guess they also have more than RTS elements) but strategy/grand strategy/4X games etc. are for sure still around too, I mean, Paradox alone has loads.
 
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twilo99

Member
100% agreed.

PC gaming is continually in the best possible state because the hardware keeps evolving at steady pace. No need to wait 6-7 years for things to improve.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
Gears, atomic heart, forspoken all have launched without shader compilation stutter to my knowledge so they werent really fixed.

HZD was fixed, but did it really have stuttering in the first place?.
God of war fixed memory leak the first month. fine
Callisto was fixed with 12/15 update ill give you that.
Sackboy was fixed. fine

Gotham knights? LOL, it should be named stutter knights.
Spider-man still has a memory leak.

Days gone?

Was this really Fixed? It still had this problem last year.

That's what I said.
HZD didn't have stutters as it pre compiles shaders ( at least the last time I played)
Gothan Knights I heard the freezes (insane stutters) were fixed.
Days gone never did that here, so don't know if it`s that user problem or general spread as first time I hear this.
 
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Metalman96

Member
Big issue with it right now is games coming out being stuttering mess, and GPU prices right now really suck. I wouldn't trade my PC for a console at all, but I feel the scene is in a bit of a slump with a few things at the moment.
 

rodrigolfp

Haptic Gamepads 4 Life
In many ways, PC gaming is awesome. But for AAA games, consoles have caught up or surpassed in many ways compared to the last two gens.
  • Reasonable hardware prices
  • 60 fps
  • Mid gen upgrades
  • Mostly smooth performance
60 fps is not a limit on pc.
PC has several upgrades options.
Smooth 30fps performance or smooth 100+ ms of input lag don't surpass anything on PC. Maybe Deadly Premonition only...
 

Bragr

Banned
I think a lot of gamers don't know what PC gaming once was.

There is something strange about playing PC today when you experienced it in its heyday, most games are made for console first now, and so many games are best played with a controller. This was not always the case.

There used to be a large flourishing PC-exclusive triple-A market that has vanished completely. Games made for keyboard and mouse. Games that were 6 years ahead of the console market technically, and back then that was massive.

Now we are limited to indie strategy titles, early-access steam games, and the once-in-a-while Relic title.

It's a real shame being a PC gamer today. It used to be glorious. Now we are just eating scraps from the consoles.
 
Definitely true, and I've been playing on PC since the early 90s. Anyone who disagrees needs to take off their AAA-colored glasses.
 
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I grew up with the late 90s and early 00s PC gaming (had no consoles other than SNES) and I miss the old GoldSrc and Source days due to the amount of creative mods that came out during that era, Day of Defeat, Action Half-Life, The Specialists, Natural Selection, ect.

Steam has been a blessing though because the amount of games on there is unmatched and you get the best value as a PC gamer.
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
It's a real shame being a PC gamer today. It used to be glorious. Now we are just eating scraps from the consoles.
how are we eating scraps when we play them at better settings with any controller?
it sucks that exclusives are gone yeah but PC's better than ever despite the exclusive shift to consoles
 
how are we eating scraps when we play them at better settings with any controller?
it sucks that exclusives are gone yeah but PC's better than ever despite the exclusive shift to consoles

Why would it suck that exclusives are gone?

PC gamers have railed against console exclusives.

Exclusives hurt all consumers. I'm glad PDX games are coming to consoles. Platform warring is no way to go through life.
 
I am curious why you think that. I have thought it has been pretty easy for quite a while. I have been building my own PCs since 99.
Hell I was in high school during the early 00s and we would build PCs during computer class.

It's never been difficult
 

A.Romero

Member
I agree with you OP.

I've been gaming since the before the first pentiums and gaming has come a long way.

There are more options than ever before and they are mighty accesible. Specially for people living outside the US thanks to regionalized pricing.

There are free full release games all around, tech you wouldn't believe, building PC's is easier than ever, messing with drivers and stuff like that is very rare, playing online it's pretty easy too and making games has never been easier.

Consoles are a pretty good deal right now but that doesn't make PC bad. They are different options, it's great when we can chose what fits us best.

Not saying there are no problems, though. Stutter is an issue as well as crappy ports but that doesn't negate a whole platform.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Why would it suck that exclusives are gone?
because pc exclusives created genres, pushed gaming forward, and fostered communities on a level unseen on console (well, besides Nintendo OFC). some of the most iconic internet videos, characters, communities, were centered around PC exclusives.
Gmod ALONE is one of the most iconic games ever made period. that game came out in 2006
 

Beechos

Member
Huh? There are loads of all of those. More nowadays than some years ago after the revival of classic RPGs thanks to crowdfunding which has led to more games outside that like Original Sin 1, 2 and Baldur's Gate III among the still continuing Bethesda stuff (ok so they faltered lately but that's just one company anyway, it can happen and isn't down to any single platform) and games like The Witcher. They just also come to consoles by default (alongside PC also getting all console games it didn't use to, from fighting to jrpgs and stuff like souls and monster hunter of course). Maybe not so much RTS at the moment (though there are bangers like the Total War games but I guess they also have more than RTS elements) but strategy/grand strategy/4X games etc. are for sure still around too, I mean, Paradox alone has loads.
Maybe i just grew up in that era and its just nostalgia then and longer dev cycles. But it feels like i was playing all these games one after another.

for rpgs: baldurs gate , icewind dale, neverwinter nights, planescape torment, might and magic, heroes of might and magic, diablo, fallout

Fps: all the various doom/quake/unreal and their clones.

Rts: c&c, warcraft, starcraft, homeworld, aoe, company of heroes, myth, rise of nations, civ, lotr

Graphic adventures: full throttle, grim fandango
 

Sentenza

Member
You must have missed the 90’s.
I was fully active on PC in the 90s and while there are arguments to make about how much creative shit was happening at the time, I'm incline to agree with him that it has never been smoother. The early-mid 2000... Those were my SHIT era.
 
because pc exclusives created genres, pushed gaming forward, and fostered communities on a level unseen on console (well, besides Nintendo OFC). some of the most iconic internet videos, characters, communities, were centered around PC exclusives.
Gmod ALONE is one of the most iconic games ever made period. that game came out in 2006

You can say that console exclusives created them as well. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree here. The more people enjoying, the merrier for me.
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Maybe i just grew up in that era and its just nostalgia then and longer dev cycles. But it feels like i was playing all these games one after another.

for rpgs: baldurs gate , icewind dale, neverwinter nights, planescape torment, might and magic, heroes of might and magic, diablo, fallout

Fps: all the various doom/quake/unreal and their clones.

Rts: c&c, warcraft, starcraft, homeworld, aoe, company of heroes, myth, rise of nations, civ, lotr

Graphic adventures: full throttle, grim fandango
There are spiritual successors to most of the RPGs (like Pillars of Eternity, the Pathfinder games and some I named before, actual ones like Diablo which never had frequent sequels and alternatives like Path of Exile), revived IP like Wasteland (since Fallout went a different direction with Bethesda this worked out) and all new good ones like Disco Elysium. Since you differentiate to a specific type of FPS, well, there are too many old school FPS to name like Dusk and Ultrakill (not so much for multiplayer I guess and mostly indie but you still get the odd Doom etc.), look up the various "boomer shooter" threads. Rts I agree is not that big at the moment but eh, there are still some notable releases or actually great and at times even expanded remasters of classics like AOE II. The adventure genre is alive and well with Cyan, Forgwares, AGS made games etc. but you'd have to follow some blog/site dedicated to the genre for most that don't have notable names like Monkey Island. Again, thanks to indies, B games and crowd funding most genres that were missing for a time have returned in abundance. We almost got a space game revival too and there have been some great immersive sims and those Commandos-like tactical party based games. Flight sims. Everything. We miss something Thief-esque after Dishonored but there's always Hitman or going stealthy on said immersive sims. Also some promising tactical FPS like Ground Branch and Ready or Not.
 
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Bragr

Banned
how are we eating scraps when we play them at better settings with any controller?
it sucks that exclusives are gone yeah but PC's better than ever despite the exclusive shift to consoles
I am sorry but I don't give a shit about upscaling Harry Potter and getting one-year-old console ports. That's not PC gaming, that's scraps. PC gaming collapsed around 2010-2012.

- Half-Life
- Grim Fandango
- Thief
- Baldur's Gate
- Railroad Tycoon II
- StarCraft
- Myth 2
- Fallout 2
- Rainbow Six
- Unreal
- Commandos
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Dune 2000

That's one year, 1998, as a PC gamer. That's a world gone.
 
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bender

What time is it?
You can still remember GTA4 and The Witcher? Slow down old man!

200w.gif
 

Aenima

Member
Are you s-s-su-su-sure?

In the software department is pretty good now as it has 2 big platform holders also releasing games on PC and more japanese support. But the hardware became way too overpriced.
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
You can say that console exclusives created them as well. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree here. The more people enjoying, the merrier for me.
i've yet to see a Playstation or Xbox exclusive that pulls as many numbers as CSGO 10 years after release. I've yet to see a console exclusive with as many fanmade SFM animations as TF2. Would a third GOW reboot sequel break the internet the same way Half Life 3 would?
 

TrebleShot

Member
PC gaming is not all it’s cracked up to be unfortunately.

+ Above 60fps
+ Usually better IQ
+ RTS games
+ Emulation

- Littered with cheats
- Most games launch broken
- Stuttery mess even on top end hardware
- Best games are old console exclusives
- Most games need some sort of fix or workaround for controllers or display modes
- Hideously Expensive hardware for relative perf gain
- At least three launchers on the go and probably more
- Overly reliant on upscaling
- Overly reliant on frame Gen
- Overly reliant on RT as a gotcha
- Usually sitting at a desk
 
i've yet to see a Playstation or Xbox exclusive that pulls as many numbers as CSGO 10 years after release. I've yet to see a console exclusive with as many fanmade SFM animations as TF2. Would a third GOW reboot sequel break the internet the same way Half Life 3 would?

How many playstation exclusives are free? I have that on my steam store and have yet to give a fuck. How many copies of AAA games are sold on consoles vs pc? It's not pretty. PC isn't exactly an afterthought either. There's a reason MS started putting xbox exclusives on PC.

That said, comparing a free to play game...
 

Guilty_AI

Member
I am sorry but I don't give a shit about upscaling Harry Potter and getting one-year-old console ports. That's not PC gaming, that's scraps. PC gaming collapsed around 2010-2012.

- Half-Life
- Grim Fandango
- Thief
- Baldur's Gate
- Railroad Tycoon II
- StarCraft
- Myth 2
- Fallout 2
- Rainbow Six
- Unreal
- Commandos
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Dune 2000

That's one year, 1998, as a PC gamer. That's a world gone.
🤷‍♂️

2018:
-RimWorld
-Subnautica
-DUSK
-Return of the Obra Dinn
-Kenshi
-Crosscode
-Frostpunk
-Distance
-Overload
-Into the Breach
-Thronebreaker
-Warhammer: Vermintide 2
-Wreckfest
-Insurgency: Sandstorm

All high quality, some even genre defining.

"but but those count because because...!"
 

Beechos

Member
I am sorry but I don't give a shit about upscaling Harry Potter and getting one-year-old console ports. That's not PC gaming, that's scraps. PC gaming collapsed around 2010-2012.

- Half-Life
- Grim Fandango
- Thief
- Baldur's Gate
- Railroad Tycoon II
- StarCraft
- Myth 2
- Fallout 2
- Rainbow Six
- Unreal
- Commandos
- Starsiege: Tribes
- Dune 2000

That's one year, 1998, as a PC gamer. That's a world gone.
Damn forgot about tribes, r6, swat, ghost recon games that was the shit back then too.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Was way better in the 90’s and early 2000’s When it had actual big exclusives.

Now its msotly just playing console games and alot of the times broken at launch. It still has the same issues it had back
 

64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
- Most games launch broken
like they do on console as well. unless Cyberpunk was ONLY buggy on PC?
- Littered with cheats
not very common thanks to anticheat
- Stuttery mess even on top end hardware
again, DXVK/Linux exists.
- Best games are old console exclusives
which is why CSGO is the most played game on steam... yea
- Most games need some sort of fix or workaround for controllers or display modes
this is genuinely false.
- Overly reliant on upscaling
consoles do that too with FSR....
- Usually sitting at a desk
 

BossLackey

Gold Member
Been primarily a PC player for a long time, but I'm actually starting to lean towards consoles a bit more than in the past (though I've always had and always will have consoles).

Let's face it, sometimes PC gaming can be a big pain in the ass. When it's running on all cylinders and you've got a good port, there's simply nothing better. But the back-to-back horrible ports, conflicting software, game boot issues, insane hardware prices, 82 different launchers, and the myriad other issues can sometimes make for an annoying experience.

I'm not saying these issues happen often, but I swear they happen in clusters.

With a console, you turn it on and it works. There's no friction between your desire to play a game and actually playing it. There are of course a million tradeoffs and there have always been tradeoffs, but the horrible ports alone for PC have been enough to start tipping the scales for me a bit.

Not to mention, I'm on a computer ALL DAY. It's nice to not just go home and be on a computer sometimes.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
🤷‍♂️

2018:
-RimWorld
-Subnautica
-DUSK
-Return of the Obra Dinn
-Kenshi
-Crosscode
-Frostpunk
-Distance
-Overload
-Into the Breach
-Thronebreaker
-Warhammer: Vermintide 2
-Wreckfest
-Insurgency: Sandstorm

All high quality, some even genre defining.

"but but those count because because...!"

They count but for me they arent comparable to the list above
 

Guilty_AI

Member
They count but for me they arent comparable to the list above
You could say the same about pretty much any game nowadays. Its all about who has the bigger bulge in the pants, even if there's nothing inside.

Ask about influential games from 2018 and people will answer with bullshit like God of War and RDR2, games that really do nothing aside from looking pretty, nothing like the Half Life's, Thief's, Fallout's or Baldurs Gate's.
 
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