When was this supposed golden age of PC gaming?

[irixith]

The golden age of PC gaming has definitely come and gone, that's for sure. The fact that GOG (Good Old Games) even exists is a testament to that. Multi-platform development has definitely hurt the PC in recent years.

However, the whole console vs PC thing is silly. Consoles are PCs wrapped up in small pretty packages with closed ecosystems. They just ensure that everyone is working with the same hardware configuration, which makes things easier all 'round. For the argument to end once and for all, consoles simply need to allow keyboards and mice. Then there would be control parity (i.e. you can use keyboard/mouse or controller on either platform).

[the7k]

It began with Doom and ended with Halo.

[J T]

The golden age of PC gaming has definitely come and gone, that's for sure. The fact that GOG (Good Old Games) even exists is a testament to that. Multi-platform development has definitely hurt the PC in recent years.

In my opinion, it's because of services like GOG and Steam that right now is the best time to be a PC Gamer. This is the golden age. Right now. PC gamers currently have a huge library of games to choose from, both old and new, and games for remarkably inexpensive prices. The PC indie scene is flourishing right now and is a wellspring of innovation thanks in part to services like Steam and TIGdb. PC games can be played on your couch, on your laptop, with a variety of controller options and output screens. Graphic capabilities are better than ever, and even though the progress curve is evening out, there are still big things on the horizon with Unreal's new engine, amongst other advances in modeling facial expressions, hair, clothing materials, lighting, etc.

I just think people want to blame things on consoles because it is a way of saying that PCs are better and should continue to be cared for. But many of the "problems" people blame on consoles, such as making games easier or less graphically intensive are more about the changing market of PC users. There are more people playing games than ever before with varying skill levels and they don't have the best PCs on the market, they have reasonably good ones. I think these factors guide design decisions more than cross platform production.

[MrPopo]

However, the whole console vs PC thing is silly. Consoles are PCs wrapped up in small pretty packages with closed ecosystems. They just ensure that everyone is working with the same hardware configuration, which makes things easier all 'round. For the argument to end once and for all, consoles simply need to allow keyboards and mice. Then there would be control parity (i.e. you can use keyboard/mouse or controller on either platform).

This is mostly true, but you also have to consider that consoles have had a tendency to skimp on their RAM, as compared to what you'll see in a comperable desktop (even if you account for the overhead of the OS). As a result, levels are smaller and textures don't look as good, as well as not supporting as many entities (other players, monsters, etc). And I don't think you're quite appreciating just how different a mouse vs. an analog stick is for controls. The difference is so pronounced that you actually see different design decisions made because an analog stick is slower and less precise than a mouse.

[AmishSamurai]

I agree with JT. Between GOG, Steam, countless indie developers, near-unlimited backwards compatibility, patching/modding, and emulation, the golden age of PC Gaming is now. Multiplatform games aren't a detriment in my eyes, because while PSN and XBox Live will eventually shut down, there will always be multiplayer for PC games- look at the Unreal Tournament going on right now on RB.

[the7k]

A Golden Age which involves looking back on previously made games from a decade ago? That's not a Golden Age in my eyes. That's like discovering a bunch of Bronze Age relics and then calling this age the Bronze Age because you can now appreciate them.

[J T]

A Golden Age which involves looking back on previously made games from a decade ago? That's not a Golden Age in my eyes. That's like discovering a bunch of Bronze Age relics and then calling this age the Bronze Age because you can now appreciate them.

You make a good point. I would still say this is the golden age of PC indie games though, and one of the best times to be a PC gamer.

[the7k]

Right, this is one of the best times to be a PC gamer, but I still don't believe that makes it a Golden Age because the highest quality games are in the past.

It's just like comic books. Is now a great time to be a comic book fan? Hell yeah - digital comic subscriptions and services allow us to read up on entire libraries worth of stories for pennies compared to how much it would cost to read an entire series 10 years ago. Is it really the Golden Age, though, if little new of value is being created?

[irixith]

Right, this is one of the best times to be a PC gamer, but I still don't believe that makes it a Golden Age because the highest quality games are in the past.

It's just like comic books. Is now a great time to be a comic book fan? Hell yeah - digital comic subscriptions and services allow us to read up on entire libraries worth of stories for pennies compared to how much it would cost to read an entire series 10 years ago. Is it really the Golden Age, though, if little new of value is being created?

You sir, deserve a cookie. Actually, you can have the whole jar, because you're absolutely right. Where's the "like" button?

[Erik_Twice]

As many people pointed out, there was a very noticiable drop after the early 2000s. There were several reasons, but those two were not console related.

1) Point and Click adventures were gone. Escape from Monkey Island was the last one that comes to mind, released in 2000. This genre was firmly rooted into the PC and it slowly died at the turn of the millenium.

2) Every single RTS franchise jumped the shark in an attemp to imitate Blizzard's games. Age of Empires III, Empire Earth III and Command & Conquer Generals were not as good as the previous games in the series. Base building used to be a cornerstone of those franchises and it dissapeared overnight.


CONSOLIZATION

The "dumbing down" brought by the switch of many developers to the Xbox as main design platform is readily apparent on First Person shooters. To use a recent example, take Crysis and Crysis 2.

Crysis 2 is uglier. It has worse graphics. It has a very reduced Field of View and the outdoor enviroments have been replaced by corridors. In three years, the quality went down to accomodate the much less powerful consoles. Levels are smaller, physics are worse, there are no dedicated servers, multiplayer count is down.

Team Fortress 2, a game that pushed no limits had to be gimped down to 16 players instead of the usual 24 because the Xbox couldn't handle it so it's no wonder that a title that could barely run on most PCs of the era had to be watered down to fit in it.

Like many other titles it suffers from a port seen as not important by developers, leading to bad coding and interface.

The graphical settings are non-existant, there's no 64 bit executable, no DX10 support (yeah, not even DX10, only DX9), gamers who run graphics in SLI mode have problems.

As analog sticks are slow compared to a mouse, the level design suffers, and it makes the gamplay seem like a bad version of Quake, with it's cliffs at each side, no enemies up or down, and no sudden attacks on your back. It's simply worse.

The gameplay of the many of the best FPS around like Team Fortress, Quake and Counter-Strike can't exist in consoles due to the limitations of the controllers. The genre is limited by it, by definition.

Autoaim is also slowly creeping it way into PC. Since I'm talking about Crysis, did you know that Crysis 2 has Autoaim enabled by default in multiplayer? Ugh.


The problem is that Crysis is not alone. Need For Speed Shift 2? Basically unplayable on PC. Spent good money on a widescreen monitor? Well, sucks to be you because we are not going to support it. Bought an official copy? Well, you can have it but you can only install it three times because I say so.

And I have lost count of how many games don't even support a mouse and lack sensitivity settings. Ugh.