For years I have been a diehard PC fan. The format has captured my imagination from the day I got my first rig: a Pentium 100 MHz filled with the awesome delights of my favourite games of the time. Quake, C&C/Red Alert, Discworld, and many more. I could, and would, spend days in my room at my keyboard and mouse. As PC gaming evolved so did my setup. At the time I remember my first 17-inch monitor running a game at 1028x724 resolution … “WOW”. Now things have changed. I refuse to part with the cash for another upgrade for many years to come. Why? Because PC gaming to me is a dead scene.
I guess it all came to an end for me with a few things over the past two years. Nothing has really captured my heart and my mind on the PC, the last true game that really did this for me was Deus Ex, and that’s where my story leads us.
Deus Ex for me captured what a PC game is, in its essence. It has all the major elements of a true classic. There’s a steady storyline but we have the main thing which I like which is interface: the way we deal with everyday problems within the game. For example, being able to type in passwords, hack bank accounts, pick up little bits of information, and my favourite: read a cookbook. For me all these extra things add to immersion in the way that the Nintendo Wii will never achieve, as it is never about control design for me and it never will be. I’m getting a little off-track here but let me put us back on the rails. The real problem for me that we stopped seeing true ‘PC’ gaming—the lack of imagination and inspiration from PC gaming and the sequel to Deus Ex proved that for me. Gaming was going in the wrong direction. We see here with Deus Ex II: Invisible War the sheer “dummies’ guide to PC gaming”. This game felt like a really bad console port, the interface was terrible, the HUD made me feel like feel like I was in a bubble, God this game was an awful insult to any PC gamer’s intelligence. This game for me has always signified who has won the war of formats, and sadly it is the ‘mass’ appeal of consoles.
Let me tell you another thing that has killed the intelligence of PC games and replaced innovation with a ‘quick’ fix: the Internet. Now in the days before 24/7 Internet and way before I had a router hooked up to the net all of the time PC gaming was my main hobby, it was before the times of PC masculinity and the era of the ‘pwnage’ generation. You see what games like Unreal Tournament and Quake 3 did for me was create a quick fix for developers to opt out on smart thinking and ways to keep you immersed within the game: “wow, human beings are amazing opponents, who needs to program any special AI?”(thank God for F.E.A.R) so we see over the next couple of years lazy titles and a move towards united online gaming. This for me was a great novelty, because before generation ‘pwnage’ the Internet was full of great, friendly people. All I can say with the masses joining it has made me come to the conclusion that I don’t want to game with strangers. Thus I find no real delight in beating or competing against anyone online. The majority of my friends are no longer gaming online; all my gaming is done with Internet friends and, no offence, it is not the same.
Now another thing to comment on about the Internet is that that years of running IM software in the background of my game has kept me from being truly involved with my games: having some window pop up during the game is like some annoying friend at the cinema who keeps nudging you ‘HEY I NEED TO GO TO THE LOO’. Distractions are another nail in the coffin. I can see you saying to me ‘but just turn off ICQ/MSN/YAHOO’ but most people keep those on through pure habit which until recently I have done. This last one for me and I don’t know if you share it was my fault but it extends the choice we have as PC gamers.
Too sum up: why I am giving up PC gaming? Well, it costs way too much, games are paint by numbers, online gaming is no longer a novelty and almost every game uses the get out jail free card here, no real and true exclusives, and the Xbox 360. Now wait, I never mentioned this before but I felt some real imagination in some of the titles that have came out for the new Xbox that have given me that ‘PC’ feeling—with Gears of War and Crackdown—and with more exclusives than you can shake a stick at as a gamer I like to feel special and with the Xbox I feel special and treated well and apart from that my friends are on it and online. I feel like the heart of the PC has been reborn in the Xbox 360, and it makes me feel like a right hypocrite that I decided to wait out and try it—something that I am long done with doing with the PC.
I really wish the PC would bring me back to those good old days but I just don’t feel like sitting on a chair playing a console game on the PC: I would rather play a console game on a console.
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Originally Posted by Dyno 
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