PC Gaming Takes More Know How Than Consoles In My Experience To Keep Working

[oldgamerz]

Being a PC gamer over the years (all my life), I had to fix a TON of problems with my PC games, and in my experience with a PC has actually been sort of a nightmare to get games running and keep them running, especially after downloading programs and even mods as well as custom content for most of my favorite PC games. Sometimes It is hard to remember how to fix various problems in my experience, especially from some kind of game bug that was drug in by something I downloaded.

Sometimes a game is permanently damaged even after you uninstall it and reinstall it (because it was a bug that rooted in your computers registry), again from something that you downloaded or some kind of issue. I am not some kind of master race guy and In fact I don't even know what that term means at this moment. But by playing on consoles and going back into PC gaming and remembering how to fix things has been a full time job for my over the years. I grew up with only a PC in which was a good thing in a way because it was darn near impossible for my evil childhood friends to pick up my PC and take it with them, like they did with all my handhelds.

What is your personal opinion and experience with computers? they are really kinda hard to take care of compared to lets say a retro console in my opinion

[azotam]

Being a PC gamer over the years (all my life), I had to fix a TON of problems with my PC games, and in my experience with a PC has actually been sort of a nightmare to get games running and keep them running, especially after downloading programs and even mods as well as custom content for most of my favorite PC games. Sometimes It is hard to remember how to fix various problems in my experience, especially from some kind of game bug that was drug in by something I downloaded.

Sometimes a game is permanently damaged even after you uninstall it and reinstall it (because it was a bug that rooted in your computers registry), again from something that you downloaded or some kind of issue. I am not some kind of master race guy and In fact I don't even know what that term means at this moment. But by playing on consoles and going back into PC gaming and remembering how to fix things has been a full time job for my over the years. I grew up with only a PC in which was a good thing in a way because it was darn near impossible for my evil childhood friends to pick up my PC and take it with them, like they did with all my handhelds.

What is your personal opinion and experience with computers? they are really kinda hard to take care of compared to lets say a retro console in my opinion

In my personal opinion, I do not find so. I enjoy the "open-ness" of the platform , as well as the ability to play older games (with some tweaking here and there) on modern OSes either through third party patches, mods, open source engines, etc. They are often fairly simple to execute, especially if they only require an "emulator-like" program like DosBox or dgVoodoo to run. As for modern games, I generally pick games that are more PC oriented, so I haven't really expected any major issues (exception being For the Glory: An Europa Universalis game, that game crashed every 10 minutes for me).

My only major gripe is with the inclusion of Digital Rights Management (DRM) that was always prevalent in some PC titles. I generally would prefer if the games were DRM-Free, as DRM creates a whole sleugh of technical problems (from the excessive writing for Denuvo to modern operating systems not supporting ancient DRM that was included back when PC games were available physically; requires software that checked to see if the disc was legit).

As for fixing problems related to certain games, I found the forums to be quite useful as some do explain in detail the steps you can undertake to make your game run on modern systems.

I hope this doesn't comes off as rambling.

[seether]

Having a modern PC and buying PC games exclusively on Steam I have almost never had any issues.

[bikingjahuty]

You are absolutely right about that. Allowing a game to run on multiple OSes, with a countless number of configurations involving different hardware, software, AVs, patching and various other things makes PC gaming a little more tricky than consle gaming, which in almost every way is a much more homogenous environment to run games.

[gf78]

In general, a console is a closed platform. Suped-up versions like PS4 Pro and Xbox One X complicate things a bit, but it's nowhere near like dealing with a PC that can and does have different amounts of memory, different video & sound cards and different processors by different manufacturers. Add on the fact that it's an open platform, running different programs & different OS versions and things become much more complicated.

[insektmute]

I haven't found PC gaming to be particularly troublesome. It's more complicated than using a console of course, but that's because there's a learning curve. If you want to do it right, you need to be building your own PCs, and that means learning about hardware, installing and configuring Windows effectively, etc. 

Once you have that knowledge, 'complication' mainly just means you have options at your disposal that don't exist on console. Use any controller you want, run emulators, upgrade parts, use apps like Nvidia Inspector or MSI Afterburner to improve performance or visuals, and so on. Properly configured, there is no game that won't look and perform better on PC as a result. If a problem does happen, you have the means to fix things yourself.

By comparison, consoles are meant to be affordable, compact, and simple to operate. There are definitely upsides to that kind of accessibility, in that non-technical people can use them without any real difficulty, but the trade-off is that they're closed ecosystems that allow very little user control - pop the game in, off you go.

[seberhusky]

I have a vintage laptop for each OS I treat as its own console. I restored them all to their original hardware and specs they were shipped with from factory. I never have any issues because its all running on original hardware that the game likes. When playing old games on a modern PC, it will never work right because a lot of the games code does not recognize modern hardware. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 3 would not run on my custom built desktop because it was never programmed to read 32GB of ram and a NVIDIA graphics card. It seen 32GB as 0Gb and told me I needed to install more ram.  Popped it on my Windows 98 laptop and away she went, problem free.

Here's me playing a Hot Wheels Computer cars floppy on a Gateway Solo 9500: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxMMqqZnOMQ

Here's me playing Carmageddon on a Dell XPS M1710: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGG9pSq3-pM

The only reason why people have such a hard time running games on PC's is because they play with stuff they aren't supposed to play with and blindly fiddle with settings without understanding what they are doing.

[huffy]

Having a modern PC and buying PC games exclusively on Steam I have almost never had any issues.

I started pirating when PC went digital only. I have never had Steam or any other digital distribution platform like it on my machine and never will. Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

[emporerdragon]

Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

You're going to need to explain that one.

To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.

[kypherion]

Yes and no.

Building a PC require more know how than consoles to keep working. Are your graphics drivers updated, are your specs of your pc at the level required for your games, are you overclocking etc.

At the same time you can also buy a pre-built and just run games on it until it dies, simple as that. I've had experience in both fields. Basically a bigger console with the latter usage. It all depends on what you're looking to get out of using a PC. Are you overclocking and using Crysis as a benchmark and getting upwards of 140FPS maxed out in DOOM? Or are you looking to just play games without lag?

[oldgamerz]

Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

You're going to need to explain that one.

To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.

It's a little bit of an insiders deal, I've bought games from steam only to find out that some of the levels in both Wolfenstein 3D and Ultimate Doom were altered to make them impossible. I grew up on doom and I noticed a blockage in one of the secret levels in Ultimate Doom from the BFG edition. and that same level blockage was not their in the vanilla version. I literally got trapped on a level and needed to cheat to get out.


I remember doom like the back of my hand and I'll tell you that damn pillar blocking this one switch was not their in the original doom 95

The Steam app also makes my computer freeze at random. Steam alters the games and sometimes edits them to make them impossible to beat, don't use steam

[kamikazekeeg]

The Steam app also makes my computer freeze at random. Steam alters the games and sometimes edits them to make them impossible to beat, don't use steam

I've never once seen this happen and I've been using Steam since practically it showed up.  Steam has its issues here and there for sure, but in general I've rarely had problems with it.

I've been a PC gamer proper since 2004 and I prefer it most of the time over console, mostly being that I'm a big shooter fan, which is better on mouse and keyboard.  I'll usually get a game on PC, unless there's no noticeable difference between them and it's a game I'm not likely to replay much and I may just trade in afterwards.  It can be more work for sure to get things running sometimes, but PC also allows you to customize stuff better with more settings, like I almost always want to turn off filters and motion blur and some other things in games.  That and game modding makes it worth it.  I still have my consoles for exclusives though.

[seberhusky]

Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

You're going to need to explain that one.

To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.

It's a little bit of an insiders deal, I've bought games from steam only to find out that some of the levels in both Wolfenstein 3D and Ultimate Doom were altered to make them impossible. I grew up on doom and I noticed a blockage in one of the secret levels in Ultimate Doom from the BFG edition. and that same level blockage was not their in the vanilla version. I literally got trapped on a level and needed to cheat to get out.


I remember doom like the back of my hand and I'll tell you that damn pillar blocking this one switch was not their in the original doom 95

The Steam app also makes my computer freeze at random. Steam alters the games and sometimes edits them to make them impossible to beat, don't use steam

Typical. You play one game out of the millions on Steam, and say Steam is bad because a remastered port of a game is different than the original DOS version. Also Steam freezing can be anything from your Antivirus program scanning over it as it executes games, or it can be loading slowly due to internet content. I've been using steam for 3 years and never had any issues.  Steam is just a storefront for games, the games themselves are made by their individual developers, take the issue up with them.

[oldgamerz]

Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

You're going to need to explain that one.

To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.

It's a little bit of an insiders deal, I've bought games from steam only to find out that some of the levels in both Wolfenstein 3D and Ultimate Doom were altered to make them impossible. I grew up on doom and I noticed a blockage in one of the secret levels in Ultimate Doom from the BFG edition. and that same level blockage was not their in the vanilla version. I literally got trapped on a level and needed to cheat to get out.


I remember doom like the back of my hand and I'll tell you that damn pillar blocking this one switch was not their in the original doom 95

The Steam app also makes my computer freeze at random. Steam alters the games and sometimes edits them to make them impossible to beat, don't use steam

Typical. You play one game out of the millions on Steam, and say Steam is bad because a remastered port of a game is different than the original DOS version. Also Steam freezing can be anything from your Antivirus program scanning over it as it executes games, or it can be loading slowly due to internet content. I've been using steam for 3 years and never had any issues.  Steam is just a storefront for games, the games themselves are made by their individual developers, take the issue up with them.

Maybe I was hacked, in my own opinion I am entitled to share my experience with steam as same with you, I don't pirate games either I suppose I am the troll on the forums now

I really wish I could enjoy my steam library but I can't because I am afraid too, As soon as I installed the steam app onto my fresh OS started up the freezing twice and reinstalling windows was the only fix that worked both times, and I do like steam but I can't use it

[huffy]

Valve has done more damage to gaming than any other company.

You're going to need to explain that one.

To me, Steam is a storefront that provides a simple, cheap, and easy way to accumulate, play, and maintain a PC game library across multiple devices. While they have been a bit of a monopoly in the past, I'm not seeing how that is damaging in the slightest.

Valve is the one that popularized games being digital only and all the negatives that come along with it. Paid digital distribution has created the environment for disgusting business tactics such as early access aka paying to test a game when devs used to have to pay people to test their game, DLC, micro transactions, intentionally releasing unfinished/buggy games to the point of being unplayable since they can just be easily patched later, doesn't leave a sour taste in your mouth for paying for a game that is unfinished/buggy to the point of being unplayable since it is so easy to update, games as a service which digital distribution is, not being able to sell it, being expected to pay for a digital download, making games even more popular from easy access to people who otherwise wouldn't play or play as much thus making them a huge market which makes companies make games focused on them instead of actual gamers, lowered the barrier for entry, etc.
Gabe Newell said it was a bad thing that developers in the NES days had to release their games complete and whole since they had no way of patching it. Same thing is happening to consoles these days, most "physical" copies aren't even physical copies since they don't have the entire game on disc and can't be played without a patch. I think they are doing it on purpose to get people to switch to digital. I've seen a lot of people say they pay for digital on consoles now since the "physical" copies dont have the entire game on disc anyways, but that is exactly why they are doing it.  Half Life 2 was the first case of online client DRM for a single player game even if you bought it physically, you still had to keep the disc in the drive even after authorizing it on Steam. Make physical copies as hard to deal with as possible to get people to switch to digital. Games on consoles at least used to be released complete and whole, playable without a patch. That all changed when they expected people to connect to each console's digital distribution platform.
A lot of the "positives" Valve and paid digital distribution users tout are not positives, they are negatives. Updates are a good example, those are not a good thing, that means the developer did not release a complete and/or playable game and being able to easily update encourages developers to release unfinished or unplayable games since they can just patch it later.
The rest of the industry picked up Valve's tactics after they saw the "PC master race" fell for it.
"Cheap"
Nope, games are more expensive than ever when you take into consideration you are no longer getting a physical copy or manual, DLC and micro transactions exist, games are released unplayable without a patch, only paying to access files from a server, etc. Steam or any other digital sale is not cheap. Regular physical PC copies used to be better than most modern collector's editions. If a restaurant charges $5 for a sip of water, that sip of water is not cheap just because it is only $5.
Whatever convenience is provides is insignificant. I don't need the "cloud" (aka someone else's computer), the very few save files I want to keep I already back up myself. I already back up my own media, whether it be ripped from my physical copies or pirated. When you pay for digital you are essentially giving a donation to a company and as consolation get a license to access a part of their special server, they won't even admit it is a donation, instead they try to brainwash you with the "support the developer" line which a lot of people have fell for.  Piracy is just as easy, easier in a lot of ways since you don't have to have an account or proprietary client, and allows you to play games without financially rewarding paid digital distribution and all the negatives that are inherent with it.
The entire industry and all PC developers were pushing it as hard as they can, all the "journalists" were pushing for it too and did not explain the many negatives.
The more popular paid digital distribution has got, the worse things get. It is being pushed so hard for a reason.