Comparing PC with Console games

[elvis]

It's been mentioned before, but for me the only benefit I see in PCs for gaming is the control method. FPS and RTS titles on consoles just plain suck IMHO, and it's entirely due to being forced to use a control pad when a mouse and keyboard make far more sense for that genre.

With that said, I'm totally over both FPS and RTS. I've been playing games a long time (well past a quarter of a century) and I remember when FPS was fresh and new. I lost taste for it entirely around 2002, and haven't seen anything since that's sent me sprawling to upgrade my PC to a modern spec to play. While there are small enhancements made here and there, I'm yet to see anything that has broken the mould. (personal preferences prevailing).

It probably also doesn't help that I'm a Linux user, which pretty much means needing to install (and maintain) a whole other OS somewhere just to play games (even with that said, if somehow Linux became a popular platform for FPS titles overnight I still don't think I'd bother, given my current lack of excitement for FPS/RTS games).

All those factors combined have pushed me back to console and arcade gaming for quite some time now. Although I've long questioned why console game devs who build FPS and RTS titles don't offer mouse and keyboard as a valid control input for consoles. Given how little a USB keyboard and mouse combo costs (far less than a single controller does these days), you'd think someone would have done it by now. Unless the console manufacturers themselves are holding this back (I could kind of see why Microsoft would want to protect it's PC gaming publishers from losing sales to consoles, but not Sony).

[MrPopo]

Could you fire up the defragger and see how much red you have? Whenever I defrag, I see a LOT of read and I get a noticeable performance hit.

Turns out the computer's set up to defrag every Wednesday at 1 am. If you're in the habit of always having the computer off when you aren't using it I can see that it is a pain to keep up on the defrag, though.

It is when Windows has to restart after every security update (unless there's a way to stop it that I don't know about.

Still has to restart. Once again, this is all automatic. It'll install for me Monday morning and when I turn on the monitor first thing I just have to sign in again because of the restart. I'll compare with my work laptop, which also automatically downloads and installs updates but then waits for me to shutdown to apply the updates (both my home computer and my work laptop run Vista). So if you keep things on all the time or shut them down every day you can have a routine that deals with updates in a fairly unobtrusive manner. And with Linux you need to restart after a kernel update anyway to patch a security hole; they just come less often.

I know some games for me refuse to work without the latest drivers. Back in '05, whenever I tried to play Far Cry with the default 6800GS driver, I'd get artifacts and a clear ground. When I updated my drivers to the latest ones at the time, Far Cry looked and ran very well.

If you want the latest nVidia or closed source ATi drivers, you gotta get them from their site (or use envy). Also, if you stick with the same company (ie. go from an nVidia GeForce 8800GT to a GTX 285) you wouldn't need to update anything. Besides, it's not like "Oh, I gotta update my kernel for my new (insert thingy here).", the kernel is more than likely up to date when you have your new hardware (I can't afford bleeding-edge tech, so I'm not entirely sure).

I wanted to address these together. You're right that sometimes some games need the latest drivers. I just don't see this as being different between Windows and Linux. The main difference is that with Linux most games dont support it natively. I'm not familiar with how Wine works, but I would imagine any game that gets ported to Linux in some fashion is far enough after the development date that any fairly recent driver would run them well.

It's been mentioned before, but for me the only benefit I see in PCs for gaming is the control method.

Another HUGE benefit of PC gaming is the aftermarket community. PC gamers tend to be tinkerers by nature, so you get a huge number of great mods for games, even games that aren't designed to be mod friendly (look at Diablo 2). It adds a huge amount of reply value to my PC games. And then there's the source ports which let us keep playing out favorite games for years with improvements, like adding better joystick support to Descent or rendering the environments in true 3D for Doom.

Although I've long questioned why console game devs who build FPS and RTS titles don't offer mouse and keyboard as a valid control input for consoles.

FPS is sheer laziness on the dev's part. Adding support means you need to support people remapping the keyboard. There's also the weak argument that allowing console players to use keyboard and mouse would give those players an unfair advantage over the controller users.

For RTS it's due to the interface. An RTS interface on the console will be very different from the interface on a PC. Compare Red Alert 3 on the console to the PC. The console uses a radial menu that can be pulled up from anywhere to do interesting things. PC's usually have a side or bottom bar and can make extensive use of shortcuts and group keys. You can allow the use of a mouse on a console RTS interface but it doesn't gain anything, so there's no reason to add the support.

[elvis]

Another HUGE benefit of PC gaming is the aftermarket community. PC gamers tend to be tinkerers by nature, so you get a huge number of great mods for games, even games that aren't designed to be mod friendly (look at Diablo 2). It adds a huge amount of reply value to my PC games. And then there's the source ports which let us keep playing out favorite games for years with improvements, like adding better joystick support to Descent or rendering the environments in true 3D for Doom.

Valid point. After all, Counter-Strike seemed to really kick off the whole "realistic" craze in FPS titles (no more running full speed with a chain gun and hitting people half a mile away), and that started it's life on PC as a mod.

Occasionally console games will offer level editors and such things, but it's certainly not to the level of the PC mod community.

I'd love to see someone take the engine of Mushihime Sama and develop a whole new community-driven game.