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No, the title’s not an abbreviation of “peacock” it’s about PCs, and in particularly, PC gaming and how it’s...er...OK, hence, “P.C O.K”.
Some time ago, a phrase was uttered. I don’t know exactly who said it, when they said it, where they said it and why they said it, but they said it.
The phrase in question was “The PC games market is in decline”.
Whilst playing through the wonderful Mafia, I remembered about this comment and thought how wrong it proved to be.
Despite the many rumblings some time ago in the industry about whether the PC games market could survive in the face of daunting opposition in the shape of the new super consoles and sustain decent sales, the fact remains that the PC games market, in terms of quality gaming experiences and sales, is doing just fine and dandy.
Along with offering many applications, edutainment software, word processing, websites with naked ladies and spear tossing games, the ability to watch videos and dvds if you have a dvd drive, the ability to download all kinds of junk etc, the PC is also a brilliant and often overlooked games machine.
I’ve had my PC for about 3 years now, give or take a bit, and in that time I’ve played some truly fantastic games, and despite having a Gamecube, PS2 and GBA, my most regularly played games machine over the last few months has been my trusty (or sometimes not so trusty) PC. Though I’m not exactly saying that the other consoles I own have bad games, far from it, it’s more just saying that at the current time, the PC games market is dishing out some very high quality titles, despite some people saying that the market had had it’s day.
But what about the comments about the PC market being in decline?
It’s basically a fallacy.
I happen to have beside me a copy of MCV, the video game industry trade paper, dated August 30th, inside they have the market charts section which reveals quite a surprise...
As of the week ending Sat August 17th, the software market breakdown is as follows:
Market Share (Units)
PC – 41.7%
PS2 – 23.3%
PSone – 18.4%
GBA – 7.3%
Gamecube – 3.4%
Xbox – 3.0%
GBC – 2.0%
Market Share (Value)
PC – 35.3%
PS2 – 32.0%
PSone – 10.5%
GBA – 8.7%
Gamecube – 6.0%
Xbox – 5.1%
GBC – 1.7%
At that time, the market was being affected by the summer games drought, and in terms of units, the market was down, and I’m not sure if they include edutainment software, but these figures are interesting, as they show that amongst the retailers who give their sales figures to ChartTrack & ELSPA, the PC is the top of the tree.
Sales data is collected from a variety of sources, including Argos, Asda, Blockbuster, Comet, Currys, Dixons, Game, Gamestation, HMV, MVC, PC World, Sainsburys, Tesco, Virgin, Vshop, WH Smith, Woolworths and many online retailers.
There are more up to date figures around, but it proves that at that time, PC gaming is top, and with all the constant console wars debates/arguments, people seem to ignore the PC as a good games machine in this respect.
PC gaming has both plus and minus points.
Reliability:
In terms of reliability, PC gaming isn’t always pretty. Sometimes one of any number of problems and incompatibilities can arise in PCs compared to consoles, either in the hardware, the software or both.
My PC is like the Millennium Falcon, though it doesn’t have a space-age scoundrel and a Wookiee with smelly breath living inside it, it’s not always reliable like the Falcon, but when she works, the old hunk of junk is a beauty to behold.
PC games also tend to crash more than my console ones, for example, I was playing a little bit of GTA3 last night and it crashed on me, and I’ve had a few problems with Mafia freezing on me. That problem could have been with the game or in the hardware etc etc.
Things are better when it comes to the reliability of consoles and console games. I’ve had a NES, got a SNES, N64, GBC, GBA and Gamecube and I’ve never experienced any problems. However, my original Playstation’s lens dropped and was very unreliable at reading game discs as a result, and my Dreamcast had problems in its late years too (the moral is, Nintendo are the most reliable hardware mongers in all of Christendom).
Also when it comes to console gaming, you don’t have to worry about incompatibilities, new drivers etc, you just put the disc in and play. No worries.
Bugs:
Sometimes, developers release many PC games that can be riddled with bugs that sadly weren’t ironed out in the testing phase, requiring patches almost straight away. However, having played many PC games, I haven’t actually experienced that many bugs (if any).
Cost:
One of the major minus points for people with PCs is that the cost is high, very high. If you want to “keep up with the Jones” and play the latest big games you’re going to have to splash the cash and upgrade, with graphics cards ranging from under £50, to over £300; way more than a console. Then there are sound cards, RAM, processors, hard drives, motherboards, blah blah blah. All that adds up to quite a hefty amount, but in terms of what a decent PC can offer, it’s worth it.
So after all the horrible financial and technical minus points have been done and dusted, what about the plus points?
Along with all the multimedia uses, applications, websites etc, there are many great games, some of which take an age to install :(
There’s fantastic first person shooters like the engrossing and realistic Operation Flashpoint, ultra violent Soldier of Fortune 2, fantastic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, atmospheric action packed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Project IGI, No One Lives Forever. Plus Unreal Tournament 2003, Doom 3, Project IGI 2, No One Lives Forever 2 are all coming soon.
There are great action adventures like the absolutely amazing Mafia, the best version of Max Payne, Lightsaber-tastic Jedi Outcast and a little unheard of game called GTA3.
There’s all manner of great RPGs and real-time strategy games plus sim and strategy games like the billion selling Champ Manager series, with CM4 coming soon, the likeable Sim City series, with Sim City 4 coming soon, and then there’s the trillion-selling The Sims series. The Sims has been in the PC charts for a whopping 137 weeks!
Worried that a new game might not be very good?
Well simply download a demo and play it for yourself. I know some consoles have magazines with demo discs with them (for about a fiver), but with PC demos, you don’t need to pay, plus you don’t need to leave the house to get it.
You can also get add-ons that improve the game like the frequent Sims expansion packs and the forthcoming Medal of Honor add-on pack. Plus, some game publishers/ developer’s websites add new stuff to some games via downloads. Codemasters are a very good example with their excellent support of Operation Flashpoint, giving new weapons, vehicles etc.
Control-wise, some of these games have some fairly overwhelming amount of buttons to assign and use (i.e. Operation Flashpoint), but many can be played with only one hand with a mouse (so your other hand is free to fumble with your...er...packet of sweets ;D).
When it comes to first person shooter, the mouse & keyboard method works a real treat, much better than with a control pad. I haven’t played a console FPS since Perfect Dark, so when I get Timesplitters 2 on the Gamecube I’m going to find it tough to adjust back from the excellent mouse & keyboard controls offered by PC shooters and back to using a control pad.
There’s also the little matter of online play.
With all the talk about Xbox Live being the best thing since sliced bread, some seem to forget that playing online has been a feature of PC gaming for the last few years, with the majority of major titles such as Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein offering online play. Though online gaming is something I haven’t really done enough of, and although it’s great, I still prefer all the fun of 4-player gaming on a console, with friends or family huddled around a TV having a laugh.
So in the end, “The PC games market is in decline” comment is pretty far off the mark, and PC gaming has been very strong for a long time and looks as if the quality titles will still be flowing for some time to come.
I’ve been highly satisfied with the majority of my PC games, and despite its aforementioned flaws, I love my PC to bits.
If you have money to burn, don’t bother importing that expensive monkey via a dodgy mail order company, buy a PC and experience some really great games instead.
Some time ago, a phrase was uttered. I don’t know exactly who said it, when they said it, where they said it and why they said it, but they said it.
The phrase in question was “The PC games market is in decline”.
Whilst playing through the wonderful Mafia, I remembered about this comment and thought how wrong it proved to be.
Despite the many rumblings some time ago in the industry about whether the PC games market could survive in the face of daunting opposition in the shape of the new super consoles and sustain decent sales, the fact remains that the PC games market, in terms of quality gaming experiences and sales, is doing just fine and dandy.
Along with offering many applications, edutainment software, word processing, websites with naked ladies and spear tossing games, the ability to watch videos and dvds if you have a dvd drive, the ability to download all kinds of junk etc, the PC is also a brilliant and often overlooked games machine.
I’ve had my PC for about 3 years now, give or take a bit, and in that time I’ve played some truly fantastic games, and despite having a Gamecube, PS2 and GBA, my most regularly played games machine over the last few months has been my trusty (or sometimes not so trusty) PC. Though I’m not exactly saying that the other consoles I own have bad games, far from it, it’s more just saying that at the current time, the PC games market is dishing out some very high quality titles, despite some people saying that the market had had it’s day.
But what about the comments about the PC market being in decline?
It’s basically a fallacy.
I happen to have beside me a copy of MCV, the video game industry trade paper, dated August 30th, inside they have the market charts section which reveals quite a surprise...
As of the week ending Sat August 17th, the software market breakdown is as follows:
Market Share (Units)
PC – 41.7%
PS2 – 23.3%
PSone – 18.4%
GBA – 7.3%
Gamecube – 3.4%
Xbox – 3.0%
GBC – 2.0%
Market Share (Value)
PC – 35.3%
PS2 – 32.0%
PSone – 10.5%
GBA – 8.7%
Gamecube – 6.0%
Xbox – 5.1%
GBC – 1.7%
At that time, the market was being affected by the summer games drought, and in terms of units, the market was down, and I’m not sure if they include edutainment software, but these figures are interesting, as they show that amongst the retailers who give their sales figures to ChartTrack & ELSPA, the PC is the top of the tree.
Sales data is collected from a variety of sources, including Argos, Asda, Blockbuster, Comet, Currys, Dixons, Game, Gamestation, HMV, MVC, PC World, Sainsburys, Tesco, Virgin, Vshop, WH Smith, Woolworths and many online retailers.
There are more up to date figures around, but it proves that at that time, PC gaming is top, and with all the constant console wars debates/arguments, people seem to ignore the PC as a good games machine in this respect.
PC gaming has both plus and minus points.
Reliability:
In terms of reliability, PC gaming isn’t always pretty. Sometimes one of any number of problems and incompatibilities can arise in PCs compared to consoles, either in the hardware, the software or both.
My PC is like the Millennium Falcon, though it doesn’t have a space-age scoundrel and a Wookiee with smelly breath living inside it, it’s not always reliable like the Falcon, but when she works, the old hunk of junk is a beauty to behold.
PC games also tend to crash more than my console ones, for example, I was playing a little bit of GTA3 last night and it crashed on me, and I’ve had a few problems with Mafia freezing on me. That problem could have been with the game or in the hardware etc etc.
Things are better when it comes to the reliability of consoles and console games. I’ve had a NES, got a SNES, N64, GBC, GBA and Gamecube and I’ve never experienced any problems. However, my original Playstation’s lens dropped and was very unreliable at reading game discs as a result, and my Dreamcast had problems in its late years too (the moral is, Nintendo are the most reliable hardware mongers in all of Christendom).
Also when it comes to console gaming, you don’t have to worry about incompatibilities, new drivers etc, you just put the disc in and play. No worries.
Bugs:
Sometimes, developers release many PC games that can be riddled with bugs that sadly weren’t ironed out in the testing phase, requiring patches almost straight away. However, having played many PC games, I haven’t actually experienced that many bugs (if any).
Cost:
One of the major minus points for people with PCs is that the cost is high, very high. If you want to “keep up with the Jones” and play the latest big games you’re going to have to splash the cash and upgrade, with graphics cards ranging from under £50, to over £300; way more than a console. Then there are sound cards, RAM, processors, hard drives, motherboards, blah blah blah. All that adds up to quite a hefty amount, but in terms of what a decent PC can offer, it’s worth it.
So after all the horrible financial and technical minus points have been done and dusted, what about the plus points?
Along with all the multimedia uses, applications, websites etc, there are many great games, some of which take an age to install :(
There’s fantastic first person shooters like the engrossing and realistic Operation Flashpoint, ultra violent Soldier of Fortune 2, fantastic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, atmospheric action packed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Project IGI, No One Lives Forever. Plus Unreal Tournament 2003, Doom 3, Project IGI 2, No One Lives Forever 2 are all coming soon.
There are great action adventures like the absolutely amazing Mafia, the best version of Max Payne, Lightsaber-tastic Jedi Outcast and a little unheard of game called GTA3.
There’s all manner of great RPGs and real-time strategy games plus sim and strategy games like the billion selling Champ Manager series, with CM4 coming soon, the likeable Sim City series, with Sim City 4 coming soon, and then there’s the trillion-selling The Sims series. The Sims has been in the PC charts for a whopping 137 weeks!
Worried that a new game might not be very good?
Well simply download a demo and play it for yourself. I know some consoles have magazines with demo discs with them (for about a fiver), but with PC demos, you don’t need to pay, plus you don’t need to leave the house to get it.
You can also get add-ons that improve the game like the frequent Sims expansion packs and the forthcoming Medal of Honor add-on pack. Plus, some game publishers/ developer’s websites add new stuff to some games via downloads. Codemasters are a very good example with their excellent support of Operation Flashpoint, giving new weapons, vehicles etc.
Control-wise, some of these games have some fairly overwhelming amount of buttons to assign and use (i.e. Operation Flashpoint), but many can be played with only one hand with a mouse (so your other hand is free to fumble with your...er...packet of sweets ;D).
When it comes to first person shooter, the mouse & keyboard method works a real treat, much better than with a control pad. I haven’t played a console FPS since Perfect Dark, so when I get Timesplitters 2 on the Gamecube I’m going to find it tough to adjust back from the excellent mouse & keyboard controls offered by PC shooters and back to using a control pad.
There’s also the little matter of online play.
With all the talk about Xbox Live being the best thing since sliced bread, some seem to forget that playing online has been a feature of PC gaming for the last few years, with the majority of major titles such as Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein offering online play. Though online gaming is something I haven’t really done enough of, and although it’s great, I still prefer all the fun of 4-player gaming on a console, with friends or family huddled around a TV having a laugh.
So in the end, “The PC games market is in decline” comment is pretty far off the mark, and PC gaming has been very strong for a long time and looks as if the quality titles will still be flowing for some time to come.
I’ve been highly satisfied with the majority of my PC games, and despite its aforementioned flaws, I love my PC to bits.
If you have money to burn, don’t bother importing that expensive monkey via a dodgy mail order company, buy a PC and experience some really great games instead.
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No, the title’s not an abbreviation of “peacock” it’s about PCs, and in particularly, PC gaming and how it’s...er...OK, hence, “P.C O.K”.
Some time ago, a phrase was uttered. I don’t know exactly who said it, when they said it, where they said it and why they said it, but they said it.
The phrase in question was “The PC games market is in decline”.
Whilst playing through the wonderful Mafia, I remembered about this comment and thought how wrong it proved to be.
Despite the many rumblings some time ago in the industry about whether the PC games market could survive in the face of daunting opposition in the shape of the new super consoles and sustain decent sales, the fact remains that the PC games market, in terms of quality gaming experiences and sales, is doing just fine and dandy.
Along with offering many applications, edutainment software, word processing, websites with naked ladies and spear tossing games, the ability to watch videos and dvds if you have a dvd drive, the ability to download all kinds of junk etc, the PC is also a brilliant and often overlooked games machine.
I’ve had my PC for about 3 years now, give or take a bit, and in that time I’ve played some truly fantastic games, and despite having a Gamecube, PS2 and GBA, my most regularly played games machine over the last few months has been my trusty (or sometimes not so trusty) PC. Though I’m not exactly saying that the other consoles I own have bad games, far from it, it’s more just saying that at the current time, the PC games market is dishing out some very high quality titles, despite some people saying that the market had had it’s day.
But what about the comments about the PC market being in decline?
It’s basically a fallacy.
I happen to have beside me a copy of MCV, the video game industry trade paper, dated August 30th, inside they have the market charts section which reveals quite a surprise...
As of the week ending Sat August 17th, the software market breakdown is as follows:
Market Share (Units)
PC – 41.7%
PS2 – 23.3%
PSone – 18.4%
GBA – 7.3%
Gamecube – 3.4%
Xbox – 3.0%
GBC – 2.0%
Market Share (Value)
PC – 35.3%
PS2 – 32.0%
PSone – 10.5%
GBA – 8.7%
Gamecube – 6.0%
Xbox – 5.1%
GBC – 1.7%
At that time, the market was being affected by the summer games drought, and in terms of units, the market was down, and I’m not sure if they include edutainment software, but these figures are interesting, as they show that amongst the retailers who give their sales figures to ChartTrack & ELSPA, the PC is the top of the tree.
Sales data is collected from a variety of sources, including Argos, Asda, Blockbuster, Comet, Currys, Dixons, Game, Gamestation, HMV, MVC, PC World, Sainsburys, Tesco, Virgin, Vshop, WH Smith, Woolworths and many online retailers.
There are more up to date figures around, but it proves that at that time, PC gaming is top, and with all the constant console wars debates/arguments, people seem to ignore the PC as a good games machine in this respect.
PC gaming has both plus and minus points.
Reliability:
In terms of reliability, PC gaming isn’t always pretty. Sometimes one of any number of problems and incompatibilities can arise in PCs compared to consoles, either in the hardware, the software or both.
My PC is like the Millennium Falcon, though it doesn’t have a space-age scoundrel and a Wookiee with smelly breath living inside it, it’s not always reliable like the Falcon, but when she works, the old hunk of junk is a beauty to behold.
PC games also tend to crash more than my console ones, for example, I was playing a little bit of GTA3 last night and it crashed on me, and I’ve had a few problems with Mafia freezing on me. That problem could have been with the game or in the hardware etc etc.
Things are better when it comes to the reliability of consoles and console games. I’ve had a NES, got a SNES, N64, GBC, GBA and Gamecube and I’ve never experienced any problems. However, my original Playstation’s lens dropped and was very unreliable at reading game discs as a result, and my Dreamcast had problems in its late years too (the moral is, Nintendo are the most reliable hardware mongers in all of Christendom).
Also when it comes to console gaming, you don’t have to worry about incompatibilities, new drivers etc, you just put the disc in and play. No worries.
Bugs:
Sometimes, developers release many PC games that can be riddled with bugs that sadly weren’t ironed out in the testing phase, requiring patches almost straight away. However, having played many PC games, I haven’t actually experienced that many bugs (if any).
Cost:
One of the major minus points for people with PCs is that the cost is high, very high. If you want to “keep up with the Jones” and play the latest big games you’re going to have to splash the cash and upgrade, with graphics cards ranging from under £50, to over £300; way more than a console. Then there are sound cards, RAM, processors, hard drives, motherboards, blah blah blah. All that adds up to quite a hefty amount, but in terms of what a decent PC can offer, it’s worth it.
So after all the horrible financial and technical minus points have been done and dusted, what about the plus points?
Along with all the multimedia uses, applications, websites etc, there are many great games, some of which take an age to install :(
There’s fantastic first person shooters like the engrossing and realistic Operation Flashpoint, ultra violent Soldier of Fortune 2, fantastic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, atmospheric action packed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Project IGI, No One Lives Forever. Plus Unreal Tournament 2003, Doom 3, Project IGI 2, No One Lives Forever 2 are all coming soon.
There are great action adventures like the absolutely amazing Mafia, the best version of Max Payne, Lightsaber-tastic Jedi Outcast and a little unheard of game called GTA3.
There’s all manner of great RPGs and real-time strategy games plus sim and strategy games like the billion selling Champ Manager series, with CM4 coming soon, the likeable Sim City series, with Sim City 4 coming soon, and then there’s the trillion-selling The Sims series. The Sims has been in the PC charts for a whopping 137 weeks!
Worried that a new game might not be very good?
Well simply download a demo and play it for yourself. I know some consoles have magazines with demo discs with them (for about a fiver), but with PC demos, you don’t need to pay, plus you don’t need to leave the house to get it.
You can also get add-ons that improve the game like the frequent Sims expansion packs and the forthcoming Medal of Honor add-on pack. Plus, some game publishers/ developer’s websites add new stuff to some games via downloads. Codemasters are a very good example with their excellent support of Operation Flashpoint, giving new weapons, vehicles etc.
Control-wise, some of these games have some fairly overwhelming amount of buttons to assign and use (i.e. Operation Flashpoint), but many can be played with only one hand with a mouse (so your other hand is free to fumble with your...er...packet of sweets ;D).
When it comes to first person shooter, the mouse & keyboard method works a real treat, much better than with a control pad. I haven’t played a console FPS since Perfect Dark, so when I get Timesplitters 2 on the Gamecube I’m going to find it tough to adjust back from the excellent mouse & keyboard controls offered by PC shooters and back to using a control pad.
There’s also the little matter of online play.
With all the talk about Xbox Live being the best thing since sliced bread, some seem to forget that playing online has been a feature of PC gaming for the last few years, with the majority of major titles such as Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein offering online play. Though online gaming is something I haven’t really done enough of, and although it’s great, I still prefer all the fun of 4-player gaming on a console, with friends or family huddled around a TV having a laugh.
So in the end, “The PC games market is in decline” comment is pretty far off the mark, and PC gaming has been very strong for a long time and looks as if the quality titles will still be flowing for some time to come.
I’ve been highly satisfied with the majority of my PC games, and despite its aforementioned flaws, I love my PC to bits.
If you have money to burn, don’t bother importing that expensive monkey via a dodgy mail order company, buy a PC and experience some really great games instead.
Some time ago, a phrase was uttered. I don’t know exactly who said it, when they said it, where they said it and why they said it, but they said it.
The phrase in question was “The PC games market is in decline”.
Whilst playing through the wonderful Mafia, I remembered about this comment and thought how wrong it proved to be.
Despite the many rumblings some time ago in the industry about whether the PC games market could survive in the face of daunting opposition in the shape of the new super consoles and sustain decent sales, the fact remains that the PC games market, in terms of quality gaming experiences and sales, is doing just fine and dandy.
Along with offering many applications, edutainment software, word processing, websites with naked ladies and spear tossing games, the ability to watch videos and dvds if you have a dvd drive, the ability to download all kinds of junk etc, the PC is also a brilliant and often overlooked games machine.
I’ve had my PC for about 3 years now, give or take a bit, and in that time I’ve played some truly fantastic games, and despite having a Gamecube, PS2 and GBA, my most regularly played games machine over the last few months has been my trusty (or sometimes not so trusty) PC. Though I’m not exactly saying that the other consoles I own have bad games, far from it, it’s more just saying that at the current time, the PC games market is dishing out some very high quality titles, despite some people saying that the market had had it’s day.
But what about the comments about the PC market being in decline?
It’s basically a fallacy.
I happen to have beside me a copy of MCV, the video game industry trade paper, dated August 30th, inside they have the market charts section which reveals quite a surprise...
As of the week ending Sat August 17th, the software market breakdown is as follows:
Market Share (Units)
PC – 41.7%
PS2 – 23.3%
PSone – 18.4%
GBA – 7.3%
Gamecube – 3.4%
Xbox – 3.0%
GBC – 2.0%
Market Share (Value)
PC – 35.3%
PS2 – 32.0%
PSone – 10.5%
GBA – 8.7%
Gamecube – 6.0%
Xbox – 5.1%
GBC – 1.7%
At that time, the market was being affected by the summer games drought, and in terms of units, the market was down, and I’m not sure if they include edutainment software, but these figures are interesting, as they show that amongst the retailers who give their sales figures to ChartTrack & ELSPA, the PC is the top of the tree.
Sales data is collected from a variety of sources, including Argos, Asda, Blockbuster, Comet, Currys, Dixons, Game, Gamestation, HMV, MVC, PC World, Sainsburys, Tesco, Virgin, Vshop, WH Smith, Woolworths and many online retailers.
There are more up to date figures around, but it proves that at that time, PC gaming is top, and with all the constant console wars debates/arguments, people seem to ignore the PC as a good games machine in this respect.
PC gaming has both plus and minus points.
Reliability:
In terms of reliability, PC gaming isn’t always pretty. Sometimes one of any number of problems and incompatibilities can arise in PCs compared to consoles, either in the hardware, the software or both.
My PC is like the Millennium Falcon, though it doesn’t have a space-age scoundrel and a Wookiee with smelly breath living inside it, it’s not always reliable like the Falcon, but when she works, the old hunk of junk is a beauty to behold.
PC games also tend to crash more than my console ones, for example, I was playing a little bit of GTA3 last night and it crashed on me, and I’ve had a few problems with Mafia freezing on me. That problem could have been with the game or in the hardware etc etc.
Things are better when it comes to the reliability of consoles and console games. I’ve had a NES, got a SNES, N64, GBC, GBA and Gamecube and I’ve never experienced any problems. However, my original Playstation’s lens dropped and was very unreliable at reading game discs as a result, and my Dreamcast had problems in its late years too (the moral is, Nintendo are the most reliable hardware mongers in all of Christendom).
Also when it comes to console gaming, you don’t have to worry about incompatibilities, new drivers etc, you just put the disc in and play. No worries.
Bugs:
Sometimes, developers release many PC games that can be riddled with bugs that sadly weren’t ironed out in the testing phase, requiring patches almost straight away. However, having played many PC games, I haven’t actually experienced that many bugs (if any).
Cost:
One of the major minus points for people with PCs is that the cost is high, very high. If you want to “keep up with the Jones” and play the latest big games you’re going to have to splash the cash and upgrade, with graphics cards ranging from under £50, to over £300; way more than a console. Then there are sound cards, RAM, processors, hard drives, motherboards, blah blah blah. All that adds up to quite a hefty amount, but in terms of what a decent PC can offer, it’s worth it.
So after all the horrible financial and technical minus points have been done and dusted, what about the plus points?
Along with all the multimedia uses, applications, websites etc, there are many great games, some of which take an age to install :(
There’s fantastic first person shooters like the engrossing and realistic Operation Flashpoint, ultra violent Soldier of Fortune 2, fantastic Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, atmospheric action packed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Project IGI, No One Lives Forever. Plus Unreal Tournament 2003, Doom 3, Project IGI 2, No One Lives Forever 2 are all coming soon.
There are great action adventures like the absolutely amazing Mafia, the best version of Max Payne, Lightsaber-tastic Jedi Outcast and a little unheard of game called GTA3.
There’s all manner of great RPGs and real-time strategy games plus sim and strategy games like the billion selling Champ Manager series, with CM4 coming soon, the likeable Sim City series, with Sim City 4 coming soon, and then there’s the trillion-selling The Sims series. The Sims has been in the PC charts for a whopping 137 weeks!
Worried that a new game might not be very good?
Well simply download a demo and play it for yourself. I know some consoles have magazines with demo discs with them (for about a fiver), but with PC demos, you don’t need to pay, plus you don’t need to leave the house to get it.
You can also get add-ons that improve the game like the frequent Sims expansion packs and the forthcoming Medal of Honor add-on pack. Plus, some game publishers/ developer’s websites add new stuff to some games via downloads. Codemasters are a very good example with their excellent support of Operation Flashpoint, giving new weapons, vehicles etc.
Control-wise, some of these games have some fairly overwhelming amount of buttons to assign and use (i.e. Operation Flashpoint), but many can be played with only one hand with a mouse (so your other hand is free to fumble with your...er...packet of sweets ;D).
When it comes to first person shooter, the mouse & keyboard method works a real treat, much better than with a control pad. I haven’t played a console FPS since Perfect Dark, so when I get Timesplitters 2 on the Gamecube I’m going to find it tough to adjust back from the excellent mouse & keyboard controls offered by PC shooters and back to using a control pad.
There’s also the little matter of online play.
With all the talk about Xbox Live being the best thing since sliced bread, some seem to forget that playing online has been a feature of PC gaming for the last few years, with the majority of major titles such as Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein offering online play. Though online gaming is something I haven’t really done enough of, and although it’s great, I still prefer all the fun of 4-player gaming on a console, with friends or family huddled around a TV having a laugh.
So in the end, “The PC games market is in decline” comment is pretty far off the mark, and PC gaming has been very strong for a long time and looks as if the quality titles will still be flowing for some time to come.
I’ve been highly satisfied with the majority of my PC games, and despite its aforementioned flaws, I love my PC to bits.
If you have money to burn, don’t bother importing that expensive monkey via a dodgy mail order company, buy a PC and experience some really great games instead.