QUOTE(2kia @ Oct 30 2007, 10:54 PM)
you know what, you should just keep all the ranting to yourself.
Today I spent half an hour working on my computer. I don't mean sitting on the internet, browsing the GameFAQs message boards and making fun of people like I normally spent my afternoons- I physically opened my PC and moved around some of the cards inside, cleaned out the fans with a shaver brush and then closed it all up. "Why did you do that, Alan?" I hear you ask. Believe it or not, it wasn't just to see what the insides are like. It's because, in what's becoming a regular occurance these days, my internet isn't working.
Nothing's perfect and my broadband connection is far from it. It all started when I tried to get Xbox Live running. Purchasing a new network card, I tried to activate Internet Connection Sharing. Cutting out a lot of techno-babble and boring repetition from this tale, it's always on the blink. But today when I was crouched down behind my desk with a torch hanging limply out of my mouth while I electrocuted myself on the parallel port, I reached an epiphany- playing games on the PC sucks.
Are you surprised? I'm never done praising such fine titles as Half-Life, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, Outcast, Max Payne and others. At the least, I'm just of a weak memory. At the worst, I'm nothing more than a hypocrite. But it's only when you've sat for hours configuring a game to try and get it to work properly, when you've roamed the internet until the Google search screen becomes burned into your retinas looking for a patch, that you're really just longing for something you can plug in and play. Wait a second, what's this? Is that an Xbox I spy in the corner?
You see, whenever I'm fed up of adjusting .cfg files that have little bearing on reality, I just turn off the computer and fire up a game of Project Gotham 2. That's the way games should be. Blowing on the cartridge slot before you push Sonic 2 into your Mega Drive. Playing with a controller without having to reroute power to your USB ports. Buying loads of expensive memory cards because you don't have a hard drive (except in the case of the Xbox, of course)- well, maybe not the last one, but you get my point. It's easy to see why PC gamers are dwindling in numbers.
It's not just the overcomplicated methods of playing games though- it's the cost of maintaining the damn thing. Take Max Payne 2 for example- it'll run perfectly on my Xbox, but it can't run on my computer which has a better processor and more memory in it. If I wanted to replicate the Xbox experience on my computer, it would cost 3-4 times the amount of an Xbox plus the game. Not to mention the time it takes to copy 2.5 gigabytes of game to the hard drive. I don't see any of that happening on the Xbox version.
Don't get me wrong, it's not the games on the PC that are the problem. PC games are great, but the platform isn't. It's the nature of the beast. Where's the fun in scouring the internet for servers so you can play a laggy game of Counterstrike? Why not fire up Tony Hawk Underground for the PS2 instead? Xbox Live offers lag-free play and you can find your friends without having to boot up MSN. PC advocates would tell you that the best and most involving games are only to be found on the PC- maybe that was the truth in 1998, but the fact is that PC games are bloated and poorly coded. Unreal Tournament 2004 requires nothing less than a Kray supercomputer to play it, while games like Metroid Prime on the Gamecube look just as good.
Besides, it's not the graphics that count anyway. It's the gameplay, an area where consoles will win every time. There's no comparison between a Halo deathmatch on the PC and a Halo deathmatch on the Xbox- where you're in the same room as your opponents and able to hit them if you're a sore loser. Xbox Live has brought gamers closer together with the ability to chat to your friends easily and join them from a different game entirely, blurring the lines between offline and online play. It's an area that the PC once led the way in, but is now being left behind in.
You won't get a blue screen of death when playing Mario Kart. Final Fantasy X-2 comes without bugs and is guaranteed to run on your hardware. Metal Gear Solid 2 isn't rendered impossible to play on the PS2 because your joypad doesn't have an analogue stick. I've yet to see the Xbox shelves in my local game shop covered in budget titles while the new releases go largely unnoticed. The more I've thought about it in the course of writing this article, the clearer it's been to me that gaming has a definite future- and it's not with the PC.
go and tweak that .cfg files...
Oct 27 2007, 10:44 AM
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TTMOTC...
yawn. (Looks and mirrors and admits PC gamers are dumb)
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