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[Buggy Loop]

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I DON'T THINK I CAN STAND ANOTHER VIEWPOINT, OR DATA SET, THAT RUNS COUNTER TO MY PERSPECTIVE OR NARRATIVE.

Sales are tanking, man...and are historically tanking. You can spin it all you want, but the numbers are the numbers, and the numbers haven't been this bad in a loooooooooong time.

Because PC sales prior to this saw the biggest growth in two decades with an increase of +55% year over year from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021. A decline of 28.5% is still abnormaly high. What's hard to understand? ALL TECH sectors slowed down to a crawl. Past month's anticipation of high inflation/recession, high interest rates, didn't make me throw my 3080 Ti bought in mid 2021 out in the garbage to jump on a 4090. Wow, PC DOOMED, news at 11.

Oh wow...going to pull out the big guns with a Digital Foundry reference! Those guys are total pros! And we all know that PC building is America's favorite pastime!

Are you for real?

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/G32rk9

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/WdCrk9

Yes, Richard is more pro than anyone on this forum i would say. A 6700 XT for same price as the A770 makes his video even easier to pull off.

 

[sachos]

I get your point OP, if you look at it from a strictly "game variety" perspective then yes, PC Gaming is great right now. Lots of Japanese games, and now Xbox and Sony porting their exclusives to PC too, better gamepad support as you say its all great. But the last couple of years have been pretty bad from performance/optimization perspective and specially hardware prices as other have already explained, here in my country is still really hard (if not impossible) to build a PC with the same specs as a PS5 for same price.

 

[ClosBSAS]

You must have missed the 90’s.

time to get ove the 90s man. they were good yes, but chill...not as good as today for sure. pc gaming is legit good these days. this nostalgia shit from the 90s, come on...get over it.

 

[Kokoloko85]

And all i'm saying is that your perspective is being heavily skewed for having been someone who was part of circles where games like Baldurs Gate were hyped and praised, and now being someone who isn't part of such circles anymore, where games like Kenshi are very much talked about, thus giving you a terribly wrong perspective of where the pc market stands nowadays.

Otherwise it would be rather weird to have "must buy"s from the time like Thief selling in similar time frames roughly as much as

Im in the same circles. Games like System Shock, Myst, Dues Ex were just hugely popular titles that everyone would hear about. Console gamers knew about them too and wished for them. And when they got ports, they mostly sucked compared to the ports now days.

Im sure PC games are selling more than ever, just like alot of popular console games are, its not like Im thinking the PC Market is dead. Just the blockbuster games are less known. If Im not hearing about them and hardly anyone else is, then they are not hugely famous blockbuster titles that everyone Knows about. PC gamers know about them and thats about it, unlike before.

Maybe there are so many more games and its all digital, otherwise I and other people would hear about games like Ctrl or Kenshi more.

Something like Ctrl Alt Ego, a title you probably haven't even heard of before i mentioned it.

Exactly my point, most gamers have never heard of this Or Kenshi. Just like many gamers probably never heard of a niche Japanese title that sells millions on the Switch. But everyone will know about God of War, RDR, Spiderman, Zelda BOTW, Animal Crossing.
They are just more well known. There is not as many mainstream hugely popular well known PC exclusives like before that get the attention of everyone. Im not saying they arent great games, there has always been great unknown games for both PC and Console.

But back in the day console gamers damn well knew about Max Payne, Dues Ex, Half Life, Age of Empire, Elder Scrolls etc etc. Not the case anymore

Im not saying PC gaming isn’t better than ever, it definitely is library wise. Im just saying it doesnt have those popular titles console gamers wish they had Or actually know about like before.

I mean fuck during the PS2/360 era PC missed out on huge titles like Halo 3, GTA 4, RDR, Gears of War, Lost Odessy, Forza, TLOU, Uncharted 1-3, MGS4, DMC, etc etc and many Japanese games. Now days PC has those games. So PC is probably game wise in the best place, but it hasnt got those huge exclusives that people know about. Half Life Alyx is the closest probably.

 

[Redefine07]

Yep , that's why I play old games with mods.

 

[Rea]

PC gamers keep winning, now that Playstation games are coming to PC, PS studios are among the best studios in the world, thier quality of games are top notch. We also have access to MS Gamepass, so we don't lose anything except Nintendo's games.

 

[Buggy Loop]

PC gamers keep winning, now that Playstation games are coming to PC, PS studios are among the best studios in the world, thier quality of games are top notch. We also have access to MS Gamepass, so we don't lose anything except Nintendo's games.

Nintendo games are also on PC, in a way..

 

[JayK47]

I agree. I can safely buy a PC game and it runs. I think the last game that had crashes so bad I had to give up was Watch Dogs. Luckily I was able to return it on Steam, and now I own it on Epic. And speaking of Epic, I have so many free games on PC.

In the past, so many games did require .ini edits and other workarounds to even get them to run. You had to fuck around with every game to get it to run well, if it ran at all. Mouse and Keyboard was the only way to play and most controllers were ass. I rarely use Mouse and Keyboard these days since it is so much easier to play with a controller that most games support.

Hardware is expensive now, but I can run most games on a new video card for many many years, when in the past you "had" to upgrade every few years to run the latest games. My last PC lasted 9 years for gaming and now it is used for web and youtube and still running strong 13 years later. My current PC is 4 years old and still runs new games at max settings. Twenty years ago, I would need a new PC by now. So maybe they cost more, but they can last longer if you don't need the latest gear.

 

[k_trout]

true,
vr, steam, Xbox game pass, free games on epic, brilliant indie scene, amazing multiplayer, ps5 controller support, Sony exclusives, great emulation

 

[Bragr]

the games back then had the same production values that most indies have today. there's nothing about them that indicates AAA. closest thing is crysis and that gets by on its jawbreaking visuals.
Subnautica for instance looks far more 'AAA' than something like half life or Baldur's Gate. Ultrakill and Risk of Rain 2 have a far more distinct and striking visual style (& general graphics) than either of them

You're calling older games you're fond of AAA despite the fact that just like many indies and AA today, they're not very comparable to the actual AAA titles like RDR2, God of War, GTA, etc. And those types of games will never be PC exclusive because that'd be a money pit


yeah because half life and Baldur's Gate are 20 fucking years old. everyone and their grandma have played them at this point.
and if you want to argue gameplay don't just give me a 'probably' motherfucking play them!!! Crosscode is one of the best JRPGs out there, you have my word on it

Triple-A today is 150 million and 150 people.
Triple-A 20 years ago was 50 million and 50 people.
Triple-A in the '90s was 10 million and 10 guys.

You can't compare modern industry standards to how it was 30 years ago. Back then, the pipeline of creating parts of a game is not comparable to today, and you didn't need massive teams working for years on it. Studios were creating top-of-the-line games in 2 years with just a few people. Making an industry-leading title in the '90s was possible with few guys. Something that is not possible today. Today you need 30 people to make a car drive down the road.

Saying stuff like Half-Life looks less like an AAA than Subnautica, and that Crosscode is one of the best JRPG's, makes me question you (lol). Do you know how groundbreaking Half-Life was? practically every big-budget game is still following its book of rules. Of course it's not gonna look like Crysis lol, it's a fucking 35-year-old game. But its brilliance is still there.

 

[Bragr]

"Smaller" is a very relative word here. And from the way you speak it doesn't seem you understand just how advanced some of these titles are.

I don't understand how advanced they are? what does this mean?

Frankly, I probably played those titles more than you, or at least, I played them a lot. Dusk and Into The Breach are some of my favorite titles from that year.

But do you have any idea how groundbreaking StarCraft was? the multiplayer alone is almost impossible to compare to anything today. It was uncharted territory every time a new big game came out.

 

[Black_Stride]

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

What the flex?

• Reasonable hardware prices - Dont buy upper echelon hardware....its not needed, an A770 or 3060Ti or 6700XT will suffice. A mid/low tier CPU will eat through any modern game, trust me, I use a 150 dollar 12400, The AMD 5600 can be had for about the same price, DDR4 is basically at throw away prices.
• 60fps - What kind of peasantry is this? If all I was aiming for is 60fps, the point above becomes even more moot cuz even old gen lower tier CPUs get you to 60fps easy work.
• Mid gen upgrades - I dont know why this is listed here
• Mostly smooth performance - Effectively as long as you arent day one in a PC game, the vast vast majority of PC games have "smooth performance".
• Modding community actively making games better, including improving performance and/or visuals.
• Pretty much everything is ported to PC now, the opposite isnt true.
• No actual generational lock outs, if you are still rocking a GTX 10 from 2016, you can still play games from "current gen". Yes even your CPU is fine a 7700K can still play current gen games
• To extend the above two points - Emulation: Xbox One/PS4 are pretty much the only thing you CANT play on PC, but the majority of those have native PC versions anyway
• Free online MP
• 
  

 

[ParaSeoul]

The Unreal and Quake days were the peak of PC gaming.

 

[Sensates]

Yet for me it's been very hard to get excited about anything.

Today's stuff are very generalized, not very different than each other, but this isn't specific to PC gaming. Music. films/tvs, websites...

 

[Rhazkul]

If it wasn't for mods and some indie games, the PC would be just another console platform. In fact, you don't even need a PC if you have an XBOX (or vice versa).
The PC has lost its special appeal.

Where are the PC exclusives?

 

[amigastar]

If it wasn't for mods and some indie games, the PC would be just another console platform. In fact, you don't even need a PC if you have an XBOX (or vice versa).
The PC has lost its special appeal.

Where are the PC exclusives?

Well, recently there is Pharaoh a new Era, then there will be Darkest Dungeon 2 and Homeworld 3. Total War Warhammer 3 is also PC Exclusive.
But yeah even games like Anno 1800 get ported to consoles these days.

 

[GymWolf]

As a PC gamer for over 2 decades, I have to strongly disagree.
In fact, I would say this is one of the worst times ever to be a PC gamer.
GPU prices are a fracking ripp-off.
Every major publisher has it's own store and launcher. And they all want to start with Windows and most have a helper service.
Every other game has stutters, especially games using UE4.
Windows has become a vessel for bloatware and spyware.
PC games have become as expensive as console games. There was a time when PC games cost 15-20€ less than console games.

There are still many advantages to PC gaming, but it's becoming increasingly dificult to offset all the crap we have to deal with.

Agree but prices are still way, way lower than console.

I still regularly save between 20 and 40 euros going with pc keys.

 

[GymWolf]

3- You don't need to buy a RTX 4000.
4- Launchers only help, no one gets in the way.
5- Every single one is fixed or being fixed.
6- Makes no difference.
7- CDkeys & cia.

What do you mean?

 

[Majukun]

before pc game were the smart choice, now with the price spike for cards and steam sales being generally a bit neutered, it's not the holy land it once was...I still like it though, but consoles as of now make more financial sense

 

[Elitro]

The fact that you can sub to gamepass and play every game there on the pc is crazy.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

Working from home chilling with Steam Deck in hand. Shits pretty dope.

 

[winjer]

Agree but prices are still way, way lower than console.

I still regularly save between 20 and 40 euros going with pc keys.

Yes, but there was a time when we could get those prices on oficial stores. And key sites were even cheaper.

 

[IDKFA]

Going to have to disagree.

The 90s and early 00s were the golden age of PC gaming.

 

[nowhat]

Yeah PC gaming is currently re-

COMPILING SHADERS

-ally great!

 

[Sophist]

I would say PC peaked around 2004 when the last wave of huge productions intended for PC first were released, like doom 3, hl2, far cry, world of Warcraft, age of empires 3... Then, after that, you could tell PC versions were no more as cared as console versions. Devs who were strong on PC moved to consoles like Bioware with Jade Empire. Editors released during ps2 era that sales were much better on consoles (gta3 sales were 10x more on consoles than PC), when the next generation of consoles arrived, they already had moved their focus away from PC.

 

[Puscifer]

dude you ever unreal, duke nukem3d, half-life2, stalker, far cry, doom123, ut, max payne, commandos and tons and tons of other games ?
gta 4 was and is a terrible port. I still prefer it on 360 honestly. You can do 4k60 on pc but it still is missing something

edit: Yeah I maybe agree. It's super easy to build a pc and steam is very simple. Drivers are simple now. pc gaming is now very simple. It only lacks some good classic pc games... but whole industry does

GTA 4 is so much better on PC it isn't funny, 25 fps console versions can have it. Also the DE patch greatly improves the experience

 

[Puscifer]

I would say PC peaked around 2004 when the last wave of huge productions intended for PC first were released, like doom 3, hl2, far cry, world of Warcraft, age of empires 3... Then, after that, you could tell PC versions were no more as cared as console versions. Devs who were strong on PC moved to consoles like Bioware with Jade Empire. Editors released during ps2 era that sales were much better on consoles (gta3 sales were 10x more on consoles than PC), when the next generation of consoles arrived, they already had moved their focus away from PC.

Eh, I think this is the wrong way to look at it. Development became streamlined enough during that era that having to build entire versions just wasn't needed anymore. There was a period in gaming where you had to make a full blown unique port for each system. Now they just don't have too, you can make a console version alongside a much beefier PC version like Metro or Deus EX (just two that came to mind).

 

[Low Moral Fibre]

I've not upgraded my PC since about a year before the PS5 and XSX and still play it 95% of the time and I have all the current consoles.

Some points that sway me this way:
-Game choice is at an all time high.
-Most stuff is tweakable through options or mods.
-You can usually do a much better job of balancing IQ against performance than console devs can.
-Some genres are completely unplayable with a controller - I'm decent at FPS now with a controller even though I assume that's mainly to do with the OTT aim assist and magnetic bullets but have no idea how people are playing Stellaris or Original Sin 2 with a controller as I feel like I am completely handicapped compared to M&K.

I'm not saying this goes for every game as some things are totally broken on PC no doubt but a lot of the complaints I see from PCMR folk are coming from a point that is so far beyond consoles that they aren't comparable. You see people complaining about poor PC performance when getting 60fps at 4k when they think they should be getting 90fps and console only people saying stuff like "see you are better off sticking with a PS5" when that version is getting 45-55fps at 1200p with lower setting all round.

 

[Laptop1991]

I would say PC peaked around 2004 when the last wave of huge productions intended for PC first were released, like doom 3, hl2, far cry, world of Warcraft, age of empires 3... Then, after that, you could tell PC versions were no more as cared as console versions. Devs who were strong on PC moved to consoles like Bioware with Jade Empire. Editors released during ps2 era that sales were much better on consoles (gta3 sales were 10x more on consoles than PC), when the next generation of consoles arrived, they already had moved their focus away from PC.

Can't leave out 2005, with Fear 1, pc only release, brilliant game at the time and Gta San Andreas pc release in June, it was a lot better than the console version, but the games you mention were great back then.

 

[Sophist]

Eh, I think this is the wrong way to look at it. Development became streamlined enough during that era that having to build entire versions just wasn't needed anymore. There was a period in gaming where you had to make a full blown unique port for each system. Now they just don't have too, you can make a console version alongside a much beefier PC version like Metro or Deus EX (just two that came to mind).

PC ports during the ps3/xbx360 era were atrocious, if you had any. Jade Empire arrived on PC two years later, badly optized, badly supported, and xbox controller only. Rage was full of bugs too. Many examples. You could tell that Old pc devs were no more taking the PC platform seriously.

 

[Wildebeest]

Lots of Japanese games, and now Xbox and Sony porting their exclusives to PC too, better gamepad support as you say its all great.

Not sniffing at Japanese games. Microsoft porting their exclusives? Son, back in the day Microsoft used to make more real PC exclusives, and they were actually good, before they gutted that in the name of Xbox, and we got twenty years of horrible PC xboxification efforts including the current game pass which is their best yet just because people like the price, but it is still worse than steam or epic. I literally don't care about Sony ports, nothing I care about, not even really the mythical Blooborne port. The last console I bought was a Wii, that's how much I care about Sony games. Better gamepad support? Doesn't mean much to me. Gamepads worked just fine before, it wasn't rocket science to get gamepads to work. I barely use gamepads and I don't really like them.

 

[Sakura]

I agree OP. I remember having to import Japanese consoles just so I could play region locked games etc.
Now a lot of those games are on PC, and day 1 at that.
Technology has also been advancing a lot slower (not sure this is entirely a good thing but...), which means a computer you build now will last way longer than they used to as well.

Only thing I miss is physical PC games.

 

[Puscifer]

PC ports during the ps3/xbx360 era were atrocious, if you had any. Jade Empire arrived on PC two years later, badly optized, badly supported, and xbox controller only. Rage was full of bugs too. Many examples. You could tell that Old pc devs were no more taking the PC platform seriously.

Maybe it's just me but that wasn't my experience during that era. Jade Empire arrived on PC with better graphics, rebalanced combat to give it actual challenge, more content and the kb/m controls from what I remember were perfectly fine. Never played rage so I can't comment, but even during this period I just didn't feel like we got the short of anything minus a few infamous ports like Saints Row 2.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I just like games. Who cares if they are console ports?

 

[BlackTron]

PC gamers keep winning, now that Playstation games are coming to PC, PS studios are among the best studios in the world, thier quality of games are top notch. We also have access to MS Gamepass, so we don't lose anything except Nintendo's games.

PC + Nintendo has been an OP combo since late 90s. Always been my bare minimum setup while dabbling in PS and Xbox along the way.

Nintendo games are also on PC, in a way..

A PC alone is not really sufficient for Nintendo's lineup and goes against the grain of their DNA and what makes it good. Plugging in some controllers and throwing down in Smash in 60FPS without having to be a neckbeard and fiddle with technical problems to get rid of the stuttering and controller mapping. Not saying PC is completely useless here but if you really care about Nintendo games, you will need a Nintendo console as well.

Edit: SafeOrAlone, you were told to put me on ignore by the mods multiple times. You are following me around so obsessively that you even pulled your drive-by BS on a post where I mentioned paralysis in my hands. Because I will not tolerate that behavior, it's you or me at this point. Every time you harass me I will call you out and if I get banned (because I was told not to interact with you and, unlike you, I prefer to follow directions) it is worth it to highlight your disgusting behavior. You are embarrassing. Follow the instructions of the administration team please. Perhaps consider the value of your reputation before humiliating yourself any further.

 

[SafeOrAlone]

I agree OP. I remember having to import Japanese consoles just so I could play region locked games etc.
Now a lot of those games are on PC, and day 1 at that.
Technology has also been advancing a lot slower (not sure this is entirely a good thing but...), which means a computer you build now will last way longer than they used to as well.

Only thing I miss is physical PC games.

I totally miss physical PC games. I see the occasional limited release but it’s rare. Last one I saw was for Shredder’s Revenge, but there are so many classic games I’d love to own physically for PC. Just to have them always available to play.

 

[rodrigolfp]

What do you mean?

Auto updates, Store, friend lists, etc. Is it worse having more than one launcher than a single one? Yes, but much better than having none.

 

[Matt Frost]

Fully agree with the OT. Steam is in better shape than ever. Xbox releases their games there, even Sony does and so we got Returnal and God of War maybe even Bloodborne, Tunic is on there too. And Steam itself is pretty good marketplace and the app itself is really solid.

 

[rodrigolfp]

GTA 4, Gears of War, DMC

In what dimension those games are not on PC?

now that Playstation games are coming to PC, PS studios are among the best studios in the world, thier quality of games are top notch.

Maybe because they don't have anymore the pathetic limitations of the console versions, especially the shooters.

PC ports during the ps3/xbx360 era were atrocious, if you had any. Jade Empire arrived on PC two years later, badly optized, badly supported, and xbox controller only. Rage was full of bugs too. Many examples. You could tell that Old pc devs were no more taking the PC platform seriously.

Pratically all atrocious ports are still far better experiences than the best console versions. Higher resolutions/IQ, frame rate, controllers support, bla bla bla etc etc...

I just like games. Who cares if they are console ports?

True. Console ports are only a bad thing if they bring pathetic limitations from the console version, like 1:1 analog stick inputs to mouse in RE4.

 

[Black_Stride]

If it wasn't for mods and some indie games, the PC would be just another console platform. In fact, you don't even need a PC if you have an XBOX (or vice versa).
The PC has lost its special appeal.

Where are the PC exclusives?

RTS games, Sim Racers, ARMA, Flight Sims, MOBA, CIV, MMOs.

What PC exclusives are you thinking about?

And before you jump in and say you dont care about those types of games.....thats very much a you problem, cuz beyond those types of games theres no real reason to have PC exclusives as the consoles are pretty damn powerful and now have robust networking capabilities so hardware limitations arent much of a thing anymore.
Star Citizen could probably run on PS5 and XSX.....Series S?......well thats different.

Only thing I miss is physical PC games.

You sure about that:

<---Misses physical PC games.....actually has a drive and a case that can accommodate it.

 

[Ainem Enamas]

Consoles are specified for games you buy that hardware to play games also developers can focus more on one specific hardware, PC is different but a platform.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Where are the PC exclusives?

https://www.gog.com/
https://store.steampowered.com/

Start counting.

 

[Sophist]

Pratically all atrocious ports are still far better experiences than the best console versions. Higher resolutions/IQ, frame rate, controllers support, bla bla bla etc etc...

No true at all.

The pc port of Batman arkham knight was so bad it got removed from steam.

Batman: Arkham Knight - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Dark souls had locked fps but also locked resolution.

Dark Souls (video game) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Saint rows 2, Resident Evil 4 and Rage were also unplayable until patchs were released. One Piece Warriors 3 had inferior graphics and bugs.

 

[SmokedMeat]

before pc game were the smart choice, now with the price spike for cards and steam sales being generally a bit neutered, it's not the holy land it once was...I still like it though, but consoles as of now make more financial sense

Third party key sellers always offer the best prices, and new releases can always be found on sale day zero.

Back when I had a PS4 I couldn’t even take part in the PSN sales unless I was paying for Plus. It’s crazy that you have to pay for a membership to take part in sales.

 

[rodrigolfp]

No true at all.

The pc port of Batman arkham knight was so bad it got removed from steam.

http://[URL][URL]https://en.wikiped...am_Knight#Technical_issues_on_Windows_version

[/URL][/URL]

Dark souls had locked fps but also locked resolution.

http://[URL][URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Souls_(video_game)#Later_releases

[/URL][/URL]

Saint rows 2, Resident Evil 4 and Rage were also unplayable until patchs were released. One Piece Warriors 3 had inferior graphics and bugs.

Batman AK was bad for PC standards. They fixed and we can play at 4k+ 90+ fps.

Dark Souls was locked the SAME way as consoles but we could brute force solid 30fps or use glorious DSfix to 4k+ 60fps.

RE4 and RAGE were very playable since day 1.

 

[DareDaniel]

Played my last 20+ games on pc and only had issues with 2 of them: Hogwarts Legacy and FFVII Remake. Only spent money on HL and I regret it lol.
Played GTAIV last year on pc with mods and the game is amazing, I was really impressed with this version. It felt like playing it for the first time. I want to replay RDR2 for the same reason.
The only PS5 exclusives I'm really interested are Death Stranding 2, Final Fantasy XVI and Spiderman 2 which will be on PC at some point. I have a PS4 but I'll wait to play Ragnarok on PC also. On the other hand, there are some xbox exclusives that I would never play without a PC (Starfield, Hellblade 2...). They are just taking too long to come out.
Played Breath of the Wild on cemu and it was really nice. I also played Super Mario Odyssey on yuzu and despite some crashes, I was able to finish the game without major issues. I also want to play Bayonetta 3 and Tears of the Kingdom, nothing else interests me on switch to make me want to buy one. I had a wii u before and it wasn't worth it.
Overall i'm happy that I chose to go from PS to PC. Ofc not everything is perfect and I can always buy a PS5, I've bought all the other PS consoles, but it's not worth it right now.

 

[DemonGamerTTT]

This dude probably started gaming on PC 2 years ago...

War Craft 3, Quake 3 Arena, UT99/2K4, Star Craft:BW, Ragnarok Online, Tribes...

The list goes on, we had A LOT of different communities and a lot of choices of games made to be fun and competitive.

Now we have the most dumb boring copy pasted slow ass low skill crap games dominating 98% of the market... LoL, Warzone, forttrash...

But yeah we made great progress in the hardware side with new apis like vulkan and dx12 also gained compatibility with DxVK, proton and newest versions of Wine... We have powefulm graphics cards and processors, but from a game design standpoint we are in the dark times.

 

[BabyfaceRe]

PC has been my main platform for about 19 months now (nothing special, low-mid tier rig).

It's been a mixed bag. Access to games is nuts, PC literally has everything these days even down to emulating Switch games. Sales are nuts, you can access all the subs (personally only use Game Pass and its amazing) and release date prices are actually reasonable (for the most part.)

On the other hand, it has been incredibly frustrating. As a console gamer I never thought about broken games, yeah it happened but it was so rare that it wouldn't cross my mind when buying a game (always online shit being the obv exception). But PC gaming, holy shit, what a fucking dice roll. Optimizations suck, crashes are not uncommon for almost every single game and some games just break after X amount of time (Ghostwire locked itself to 3FPS after playing for 10 hours, tried everything, completely unplayable).

Tweaking settings for every game, rolling the dice on performance - PC gaming can definitely become quite tedious and it sounds like having a 4090 doesn't just insta-solve those problems either.

From what I see online this is the worst time to be a PC gamer with ports being so horrible.

 

[hinch7]

Disagree. GPU prices are absolutely BS and have been since over two years ago. And we still have unoptimised and stuttery games out of the gate.

Most modern multiplayer games are copy pasta lootbox gambling machines built around FOMO skins and season passes. And the majority of nice new shiny things locked behind paywalls.

 

[64bitmodels]

Triple-A today is 150 million and 150 people.
Triple-A 20 years ago was 50 million and 50 people.
Triple-A in the '90s was 10 million and 10 guys.

You can't compare modern industry standards to how it was 30 years ago. Back then, the pipeline of creating parts of a game is not comparable to today, and you didn't need massive teams working for years on it. Studios were creating top-of-the-line games in 2 years with just a few people. Making an industry-leading title in the '90s was possible with few guys. Something that is not possible today. Today you need 30 people to make a car drive down the road.

but we are still comparing on a similar playing field here, a couple guys and a couple million. the standards of the labels just changed over the years- what a small team could make back in 1997 is considered AAA, in 2017 it's considered indie.
it's still the same amount of people with the same amount of money making similar games. i'm pointing out the fact that if half life were made today with the same exact team and amount of money it would have been considered Indie or AA.
it's not fair to call Half Life an AAA game and then call Subnautica, a game with a similar budget and team, Indie, and it's also not realistic to expect actual gigantic modern AAA teams like IO interactive and Rockstar to develop exclusively for PC because said AAA titles cost so much cash that making them for ONE platform is a money sink.