The past few years have been tough ones for the PC. Piracy dogs its platform exclusives at every turn and the significant delays between when a multi-platform release comes out for consoles and when it arrives on PC does not make things any easier. Of course the All-Father of gaming is not so easily sidelined. Turns out, the PC held its own and then some this year. It seems a few people out there still recognize that the PC is hands down the most powerful and versatile gaming platform…if you can afford it.
Find out why the PC getting a second wind in 2008 made it on the list after the jump!
The year started off with some pretty big news, the formation of the PC Gaming Alliance. Acer/Gateway, Dell/Alienware, Intel, AMD/ATI, Nvidia, Razer, Epic Games, Activision and Microsoft all united to make PC gaming a priority again. The PCGA helps member companies work together to address things like hardware requirements, piracy and marketing/advertising. Helping to remove some of the “cut & paste” behaviour of the past, which is the lack of coordination as it applies to the above issues that had left PC gaming in such a weak position at the start of ‘08.
Next came AMD’s Game Campaign, which implemented a “badge” system on AMD based PC’s. The gist of it is that if you see the AMD Gaming badge on a PC, consumers will know they can play current gen games on it. Acer, Alienware, iBuypower, Velocity Micro, Microsoft and Logitech all support the AMD Game campaign.
Now, it’s all well and good that companies are working together to make PC Gaming better and to make buying a gaming rig easier (and less expensive), but what about the games themselves and piracy?
Sins of a Solar Empire is proof positive that it IS possible to have a PC exclusive title, with NO DRM, and still make a nice profit. SoaSE sold over 500,000 copies (it cost less than a million to create) and was acclaimed not only by critics, but by fans as well. Stardock treated their fans with respect and cooperated with them every step of the way, and it paid off. One of the best selling PC games of the year, but not one of the most pirated games, SoaSE proves that developers and publishers need to really rethink how they approach PC gaming in the future.
Despite all the doomsayers out there, the PC still manages to have a number of great exclusives and superior versions of multi-platform titles every year, and 2008 was no exception.
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Positive talk about PC gaming? In my Sarcastic Gamer?
^ The PS3 is my newest toy so I spent a lot of time focused on that these past few months, but I always have love for the PC. Somebody has to remind all these console gamers that PC gaming will always be around, looking better, playing better (most of the time) and staying on the bleeding edge of what is possible in gaming.
^If you can afford it… don’t see the reason for constant upgrades and headache that PC gaming really is. Gaming must be fun, after all.
^ The constant upgrades thing is a popular misconception. Every year and a half to two years is not constant and even then its not like your buying a new rig every time. You can buy a decent gaming rig these days for $1500 that will last you a good while. Half the stuff on the market isn’t even being used by games yet. We are just starting to see games actually really use SLI, and I have yet to see one that takes advantage of Quad core CPU’s. Plus your PC does a lot more than just play games.
I play much games on my PC, but that is for multiplayer only, at school and stuff. Nothing beats a really good CS1.6 og WC3 match. I also prefer FPS games on PC.
Not to forget, Cave Story is still only on PC, but soon to come to Wii.
The PS3 is a one time investment, you don’t need to upgrade it. Good luck playing Uncharted on PC with a old computer.
@Standstill
1) UPTODATE PC costs about the same as a PS3 now. A good deal will even throw in the speakers/monitor (TV a PS3 wont come with).
2) Up to date can definately match, if not beat. Hell my machine could handle Drake’s. Its two years old.
@Diortem:
So you think a up-to-date pc can run MGS4/Uncharted and such in 1080p in 60 fps lag free?
It takes 50gbs to install and that is you least of problems. PS3 games is optimized for the specific hardware, you can’t do that with a pc, since the hardware itself, and hardware combination is almost always different.
And if you are going to have a computer that powerful, it won’t be as cheap as the PS3, and there will not be as many games using that power. The pirates would also be a problem on a pc.
you only need to compare games from the ps3 to the pc to see how powerful the pc are. Next year pc gaming is getting it’s new hardware.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-j69RnEBAc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GPI9xDmRjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y2nJmKzOVY
here is some links you might want to look at.
@ Strandli
a pc could easily run MGS4 at 60FPS.
Can you please forget the myth that PC Games developers have to invest extra time because of the PC’s diverse hardware. This hasn’t been the case since the 3DFX era.
Direct X is a unified API and it means that PC developers don’t have to worry about what the user’s hardware is, only how powerful it is.
Overall it’s far easier to program on the PC or 360 due to Microsoft’s efforts than it ever will be on the crazy complicated PS3
I love this debate.
@ Strandil
First of all 50 gb isn’t that big and is probably wrong. Look at GTA IV(not the best example for pc gaming these day’s, but it’s the biggest game in terms of space I know.) it’s 18 gb of space for that huge environment, and even if it’s 50+gb it won’t matter for me. There are 1 Terabyte(1000*1 gb) hard drives out there these day’s. And even then they would probably leave some amount of the game files on the disc.
Second. That specific hardware you talked about? I don’t think you know this but they’ve had Blue-ray disc drive computer’s for a long time. Maybe you can’t comprehend the fact that a pc runs the best graphics out there alongside the best physics, frame-rate, resolution all the while it’s running windows on the background, something I’m sure the ps3 can’t do. Also Crysis has already beaten MGS4 and Uncharted by miles in graphics quality(quality NOT ARTISTIC QUALITY, learn the difference.