PC games (or lack thereof)
 

I am starting to get seriously concerned/pissed off at the apparent exclusion of the PC platform of new games. Everything is X-BOX, gamecube, PSP, etc. I just bought a new PC and a lot of the games I would like to play arent made for the PC

Nice link. Get's me drooling ;).

That is a great link :)

1/3 will not be released in 2006 (or ever)
1/3 will be so bug ridden as to be unplayable (as in permanently)
1/3 will not come close to expectations

Of the whole list, we'll be luckily to see 2 purchasable games.

Off the top of my head I consider these total slam dunks:

Medieval II: TotalWar
Spore
Hellgate: London
Dragonage
Never Winter Nights 2
Gothic3
Divine Divinity 2


And that doesn't even include non exclusives like Oblivion.

I think there are at least 4 games in that link that will be quite enjoyable to own.

However, I agree that there will plenty of disappointments in that link.

I've pretty much given up going into some place like ElBo anymore. The PC section, which once occupied great swaths of the store now occupies maybe one bank of shelves and an island at my local one. Everything for sale there anymore is for the twitch jockeys. *sigh*

I agree. Its becoming frustrating due to lack of availability, either due to EB no longer carrying PC games, or good games no longer being made for the PC platform. I consider the latter a bigger problem. I was extremely pissed when I found out NCAA football 2006 wasnt being made for the PC.

I buy my PC games online (usually cheaper that way too).

And from the above list there are more games I want to play than I will be able too. Sounds like a good year for the PC.

OperationFlashpoint2
The goods of gamming are listening to my prayers!!

Formula 1 Championship Manager
Woot!! i have been waiting a game like that since 1996's grand prix manager!!

I've been waiting for F 1 Championship Manager for a long time - Marc Vaughan had mentioned it a couple of times round here, and I hope it lives up to the hype.

Anyone notice the maximum football reference ;)

ANybody have any of the silent hill games? They are a bit older but look cool, as does the new game FEAR

The only games I am looking at for this year are sequels to my favorites:

Gothic3
Civ4 Expansion Pack
M2:TW
and maybe OOTP7 if I like the demo.

I've been burned too many times on trying something that looks interesting only to find them a waste of time. I almost always end up back to my favorites anyway and with my reduced gaming time, why bother?

I have Silent Hill 3, but never really got into it. I heard it wasn't nearly as good as 1 or 2.

As for FEAR, that was one of my favorite games from last year. Incredible game, although it was very short.

In going through the list, didn't many here find RTW unplayabile despite its lofty rating?

And does anyone know anything about Take Command? It said that the previous game, Bull Run, was the best ever. Coug?

Initially Sins of the Solar Empire looked interesting, then I discovered on the official web page the game is real time.

Ugh. I'm much too old for real time games. My reflexes are shot. What happened to good ole' turn based games?

How short? Worth picking up? I need something good to occupy my time until some new games (hopefully)come out for the PC

I still play R:TW (well, with Rome Total Realism mod) at least 2 or 3 times a week.

I think it took me 10 hours to play through it. But that seems pretty standard nowadays (I think peope said Call Of Duty was the same length). Half Life spoiled me on how long an FPS is supposed to last. (not to mention the many RPGs I've played that took 30+ hours).

Worth it? Yes. I loved it. I'll probably play through it again soon.

Cool, thanks for the review. I'll check it out.

Don't play if you have a heart condition. :D

(Also, you really do need a relatively up to date machine. There's a short thread on the game in the Game Impressions forum and some people had problems getting it to run smoothly)

2.8Ghz dual core with a 1G of RAM. I read that its a system hog, but I am hoping I am more than enough to run it without any hitches in gameplay. I have an ATI X600 video card, once again I hope this is sufficient.I see that ATI is already up to the X1900. Good grief. I just bought this PC, I hope its not obsolete game wise yet.

I can't wait for Armed Assault (formerly Operation Flashpoint 2) to come out. I don't know how many hours I spent playing the first Operation Flashpoint.

Did this not strike anyone else as funny, and a bit ironic in a thread about the lack of PC games?

Considering that EA hasn't produced NCAA Football for the PC since 1999, I would have thought you would have been at least a little bit prepared for the news that they weren't producing 2006 for the PC.

Oh, and making that comment in a thread bitching about games being made for the console and not for the PC was just too rich. Appropriate? Yes, but about 6 years too late.

Yeah, where was Duke Nukem Forever on that list?
:D

NCAA 99 was the last time EA Sports put out a great game for the PC.

Being that I hadnt bought any of the other games and Just got a new PC and wanted to get some games for it I guess I will have to apologize for not knowing that its been awhile since it was for PC. Even if its ben happening for 6 years it doesnt detract from the fact there are fewer and fewer games for the PC, it would appear anyway

There are several issues with the current PC game market:

1) More money in console games for retailers means less shelf space for PC titles. The used market is better, too.

2) Support costs are astronomical thanks to the wide variety of system configurations, operating systems, buggy drivers, buggy hardware, overclockers, and the like. Games are often blamed for bugs that they have no control over. The games have enough bugs as-is without being blamed for all the others as well. Not to mention that many of these bugs either come from trying to support all the configurations and not getting sufficient test coverage (which is expensive itself), or come from neglecting game code to make sure it runs everywhere. You can go insane trying to figure out how to make a graphics feature work on the wide variety of cards out there. Not to mention how many people buy a machine with integrated graphics and sound (read: really sucky) but still expect their games to be awesome.

2a) The wide variety of system configs means you have to scale your features and make sure the game is playable on them. Not too long ago you had to deal with the fact that some people were running on old monitors that only did 640x480, while still others had higher end monitors that didn't support anything below 1024x768. You couldn't even count on running your UI at 640x480 and letting the user set the action resolution. So you spend more time on each feature making sure it is scalable.

3) Perceived issue of piracy taking sales from the PC, while piracy is not perceived to be an issue with consoles. I know this is wrong, and I haven't been able to correct it either.

4) Overreaction to the glut of PC titles. A few years back there were over 6000 unique retail titles on the market for the PC. Compare that to maybe a few hundred for your average console and you can see where even a console stinker can make money, while you had to be a hit PC title to have a hope of even breaking even. The numbers were something like 40 or 50 of those 6000 actually made a profit. This meant that everyone jumped from the PC ship to the console ship (or went under), and now everyone is making console titles and only a handful are still making PC titles. Fortunately, those handful are making some really cool games (Rise of Nations, Total War, Command & Conquer, War/Star Craft, Half-Life, etc).

5) Portability. It's easy to take the same game design between Xbox/Xbox360/PS2/Gamecube and have it still be fun. That same design sucks on the PC because the market is different. Would you rather spend X to create an Xbox/PS2 title or 1.5X to create an Xbox/PC title?

But to get to the original question: if you really want to see what your new PC can do, pick up Half-Life 2. You won't be disappointed. That would be the one must-have game in my opinion. Others have made good recomendations for other games as well. Rome: Total War and Civilization IV are my two most recent favorites, along with Falcon 4: Allied Force (but I'm a flight-sim geek).

Tokimeki Memorial Online
A MMO version of insanely popular dating-sims series



OMG!!! THAT LOOKS GREAT!!!!!!!

PREORDERING NOW!!!!11!!!!!111

I think that is the #1 issue for most designers. All the programming and testing needed to make sure the game is fully compatible with tons of combinations costs a lot of money and time. And even after that you get your head yelled off because of certain bugs that the company missed (and also add time to make patches). Far easier to just make a game based on one specification and minimize bugs and assorting whining afterwards.

Then a game like Civ4 would never have been made, I think. That one game is probably worth the 90% failure rate among PC titles.

Exactly the game I was thinking about. Though 90% failure rate? Wha?

So many people whining about the game not working and how horrible Firaxis is because they don't care about the consumers and how they foisted an unfinished product on people. And how they were going to report Firaxis to the Better Business Bureau (yes, someone actually did) because of it. I mean, really... most developers don't want to take that abuse. Far less chance of it with a standarized console.

I thought act of war was a very underrated RTS...i very much look forward to the expansion

I like the DEFCO GAME from the introversion software guys, who made the unique Darwinia. There inspiration was the movie "Wargames".

Link:http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/index.html

I remember the good old days when a release of a Wing Commander game meant it was time to upgrade. Games that require the latest and greatest hardware, that push the envelope and force you to upgrade, are a dying breed. Of course with my example of the Wing Commander series, the games were very good.

I've got RTW, Civ3, etc., etc.

The games I play are Descent 3, RRT2, and FOF2k4. I will say this, I would love to play SHIII more, but the kids won't let me.

"Daddy, what's that noise?"
"That's their sonar pinging us."
"Why?"
"Because they want to sink us."
"Why?"
"Daddy, what happens if I press this button?"
"Don't press it."
"Daddy, what is that buzzing sound?"
"Uh, did you press that button I told you not to?"
"Yes."

You have been sunk by a plane....

SH2 is a great game. Great atmosphere, and it screws with your head. Of course, I am talking about the PS2 version

By the way, we joystick jockeys will bury you!

Does it shock anyone here that I'm actually looking forward to this?

I wasn't trying to be a jerk. I just thought that it was pretty funny that the one title you brought up was an excellent example of your point, but that you didn't even realize how appropriate it was.

So you can kill them?

I had bought a few Madden games, but hadnt even looked into NCAA football until this year, I assumed it was like Madden and made for the PC

No, I just think it's funny how they talk in little squiggly characters.