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"The Gaming World today"

Many people look at the Console Wars and think that this is the be all and end all of gaming. They believe that all games can be checked against the ones on other consoles to decide which is the best game in the world. They are quite mistaken. There is another option as far as gaming goes and you could well be looking at it right now. Do you see it? No? Well you must be looking at an internet capable Console. It's the PC.

It's a common occurence that someone happily states "when have you ever seen the likes of (Game Z) before?". Little do they realise that Game Z is a type of game that has been done before on the PC. Crazy Taxi, for example, obviously totally original when have you ever seen a game in which you drive a Taxi in a totally reckless manner in order to get your passenger to your destination before? Add in some guns and mines, throw in a load of equally crazy drivers, replace some passengers with "packages" (ie, bombs) and go back a fair few years. What have you got now? Quarantine on the PC. Not only was it done before but there was more to it. The improvement that Crazy Taxi has is graphics, but that's down to age really. Just recently there has been talk of Resident Evil being a totally original style of game and hey wow, many years ago there was the original Alone in the Dark and then two sequels. Both games involve fighting Zombies, fixed cameras and puzzle solving, the two differences being that Resident Evil has too much running around shooting the same few creatures while Alone in the Dark had more carefully paced movement with more creatures and more complex puzzles and in Resident Evil the Zombies are people infected with a virus rather than the more traditional walking dead. Original on Consoles alone and original in general are very different things.

Let's look now to the future of games on the PC. Out soon on the FPS front we have Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It's looking to be a great game with good graphics, a flamethrower, what could be a good story and what should be excellent gameplay (we wont know till it gets here). It also has the advantage of being based on Wolfenstein 3D which essentially created the FPS genre. Another FPS out soon will be Red Faction, and the question on everyone's lips is "Will it be a rubbish made for console transfer?" Well, we'll have to see but if not then we can hope for wall blasting fun, interesting styles of multiplayer (blowing the enemy base up so badly that the flag is outside for example) and a good storyline. Also in the field of FPSs we will see Medal Of Honour: Allied Assault, which promises excellent cinematic gameplay based in world war two. Expect to see scenes like that of the D-Day landings in Saving Private Ryan and Conker's Bad Fur day. This is in addition to several missions based around stealth and infiltration. It will also provide quite realistic WW2 gameplay, including true to life weapons though gore is a touchy subject in it's development. On the RPG scene we have Neverwinter Nights, which will allow you to create quests of your own and play them with friends or strangers on-line. It will also include a premade quest which should be good, or you could download quests other people have created or just play them on-line. Since it is being made by the people who brought you Fallout and Baldur's Gate, Black Isle, you can expect Neverwinter Nights to be an excellent game. There are many other games coming out soon on the PC that are well worthy of discussion, though there is not room to cover them all here.

The PC is still a power in the gaming world, bringing much innovation, originality and general good gameplay. So while it is easy to be distracted by the Console Wars let us not forget the PC is a big part of the future of gaming.

Resevilfan wrote:
> I used to use my pc for games and some are excellent innerstate 76,
> blood, quake, theme hospital but when I hear PC games i
> think

>Expensive
>Hassle
>Install
>reboot
>direct X
>graphics setup
>sound setup
>drivers
>Windows
>crashing
>misc options turn off windows keys etc
>not worth it


Consoles aren't as powerfull but It's so much better putting
> a game in and playing it straight away on a big tv, every game is
> written for your exact hrdware which means maximum performance with
> no hassle.

The main difference between PCs and Consoles is that there are hordes of different types of parts you can have in the one PC. The result of this is that there can be certain compatibility problems since games can't be tested with every combination. That's why they invented patches and drivers, which is an advantage of PCs since they can have any problem fixed without having to replace anything. As you said PCs are also upgradeable and there is the possibility of making mods etc. PCs are very versatile, since the words are Personal Computer, it covers a lot of possibilities (no toasters yet though).

One day these features might become available on consoles, but as soon as they do they are becoming PCs which is the main reason I expect PCs to be around a long time and go unchallenged by consoles.

All these rumours about Blue screen errors etc. are true, but many of them only mean restarting a game which doesn't take long. Windows is becoming faster to load so loading times are getting so small it's worth the little extra time to gain the benefits of speed and power that PCs can have. The hard drive and installation is something that consoles admire since it allows faster loading and running of games, more storage space, extra downloads and many other features. Remember also that installing everything allows you to run several things at once, so you can be downloading music while playing a game and while there may be a noticable effect it's likely to be small with higher level PCs.

Anyway, most games are made on a PC for consoles since they allow all sorts of features for creating things whereas the consoles themselves don't.

Thank you for your compliments, it's always good to know others enjoy my work (you'll give me a big head, and I'm already master of the force MUHUHAHAHAHAHAAAA!). I wish you luck with your problem Notorious but what game/games are you installing?

The PC is a great games platform. It also can do things other than games. But I was thinking that the PCs great strength is that you can modify games, make new levels etc. However I do feel that it is being left behind. It used to be so far ahead in terms of graphics. That gap closed a bit but now I think it is widening again. But the problems with installing games are what works against the PC. I have another PC, newer and more powerful. It is meant to be for work but I should still be able to put a game or two on it. But when I installed games, they would run the video and when the game menu appeared the would crash. I have given up. I think it is a driver problem (any other ideas?) but it has stopped me from playing games on it, otherwise there are a few that I would have bought. I think that Microsoft really have to make Windows more stable for gaming, so they do not crash. They should gain experience through the X-box, let us hope that they use it. The other strength that PCs have is that they are the most popular platform ever. But if they do not sort out the problems, then PC gaming will eventually be a shadow of its former self, if not completely extinct. Back to my PC, the windows games run fine, including the pinball, it is just ones that I install my self. I will ask in the tech forum as well.

slik wrote:
> At the end of the day, if you wan't to play games you buy a games
> console, if you want to surf the net e.t.c, buy a pc! simple.
slik
> ~_~

But the PC games that are released are just as good, and let's not forget, that most console games nowadays, are conversions or games based on PC games. Goods examples would be Half Life, Quake, and I could go on.

And besides, what would rathers play a first person shooter on, a console or a PC?

At the end of the day, if you wan't to play games you buy a games console, if you want to surf the net e.t.c, buy a pc! simple.
slik ~_~

I used to use my pc for games and some are excellent innerstate 76, blood, quake, theme hospital but when I hear PC games i think

>Expensive
>Hassle
>Install
>reboot
>direct X
>graphics setup
>sound setup
>drivers
>Windows crashing
>misc options turn off windows keys etc
>not worth it


Consoles aren't as powerfull but It's so much better putting a game in and playing it straight away on a big tv, every game is written for your exact hrdware which means maximum performance with no hassle.

Very good post. And you make a good point as well. The PC is definately a power in the gaming world, and will be for years to come.

*cough* winner *cough*.

:-)

You're impressing me every time you post Gronti - well done

Good post! I enjoyed reading it.

AND THERE IS NO LIFE ON THIS FORUM!!!


I am all alone, no one's here with me, because we're far apart, there is loneliness in my heart.

And i am all alone.....i am aaaaall alone.....no one's here with me....noooo one.....because we're far apart....we are faar apaaaart......there is loneliness in my heart.....in my heart...

To be sung in the you are not alone - Michael Jackson tune.

Ow

:)

Or maybe their computers actually. I always get that bit mixed up.