Is PC gaming dead yet?

dmnEPC

dmnEPC

New member
Dec 23, 2010
5,994
95
0
So I have not played a game on a PC since wolfenstein and leisure suit larry. But I woke up with a crazy idea of building a gaming rig. I've been sitting in limbo with my 360 not really being to crazy about all the limitations with the xbone or ps4.

Is this a dumb idea? How are the game selections? Can you use a xbox style controler? How much would a guy need to spend on a GPU that will play any game for next 3 years?

Or do I just get a console and move on?
 


Funny I was just thinking about that the other day. Me and my friend used to build PC gaming rigs for our friends so we could afford our own. Remember going to Best Buy and looking at rows of PC games. Hell I'm not even sure if they make PC games anymore.
 
Probably around ~$250-500 depending on your definition of play. Maxed out at 1440p? That's going to cost more than 1080p at medium/high settings. Drivers have been good since the 360 and most games will recognize any 360 controller automatically.

Game selection is good, but you'll miss out on the system exclusives, and will often get delayed releases for games that are coming to PC. There are a lot of deals and games tend to get cheap on PC if you wait for them to. For instance, the new Wolfenstein (released in May) can already be had for 60% off. I keep an eye on Game Deals. GOG, Steam, and a few other sites are the main places to get games on PC. Ports of games are often shoddily done and will have poor performance depending on who does it. Ports should be better this gen though as the systems are architecturally closer to a PC than previous gens.

I've had my system for a while now (I have a 560ti) and I'm happy with it. Waiting until the CV1 gets a release date and specs before I upgrade. I'm more of a medium/low kind of a guy graphics wise. Even if I can run a game on max/high settings, I'll still turn it down to medium or low.
 
Do you even Steam bro?

All you need is a decent gfx card that will last you 3-4 years. It also depends upon the type of games you like to play.

I would suggest something like the AMD Radeon XFX series. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/XFX-DisplayPort-PCI-Express-FX787ACDFC-FX-787A-CDFC/dp/B007MJGMYA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1411753740&sr=8-5&keywords=AMD+Radeon"]XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2Mini DisplayPort PCI-Express Graphics Card FX787ACDFC;FX-787A-CDFC at Amazon.com[/ame]
 
PC gaming is much more mature than console gaming in the graphics department. Although I haven't played on the latest consoles.
 
(O_o) said:
Do you even Steam bro?

All you need is a decent gfx card that will last you 3-4 years. It also depends upon the type of games you like to play.

I would suggest something like the AMD Radeon XFX series. XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870 2GB GDDR5 2DVI/HDMI/2Mini DisplayPort PCI-Express Graphics Card FX787ACDFC;FX-787A-CDFC at Amazon.com
Click to expand...

I has the steam os been released yet? Is steam just the pipe to purchase games through? Or are they on a subscription model? I am probably going to find myself playing 'backed up' games for the most part, unless there is some type of "netflix for games". Is that basically steam?

One last question. Is PC gaming just as challenging as it used to be? Trying to get a game to work was how you learned computers back in the day. Just curious how that's changed.
 
Blank_czech covered it pretty well above.

Moba's are in, so you have Dota2 and League of Legends. World of Warcraft still reigns supreme in MMO, and almost any console game will have a delay, but comes to steam pretty quickly.

Steam Stats

Steam is free, purchase games through your account, use them anywhere. Steam is basically Netflix for games.

GFX cards are important, but these days you'll also need a robust CPU and SSD harddrive to take on some of the future games in 2015.

Challenging is there, but you'll need to find it.

There are simulators galore right now, Arma 3, Rust, DayZ, etc. These are tough games as far as FPS / MMO.

Elite Dangerous is a nice space sim, and of course there is EVE.

Starcraft 2 is still pretty competitive as well.

My biggest problem with games these days is they require a good amount of time to be at a competitive level in my opinion, which I just don't have time for. So I primarily stick to sports games as they rarely evolve over the course of a decade.
 
Basically Steam. Steam OS is just Debian that auto launches the Steam client in Big Picture mode. If you are going to find yourself backed up, make a list of all the games you want, and just wait until the Thanksgiving/X-mas sale. You'll probably be able to get nearly all of them for <$100 total. Most games don't have configuration issues, but there is PCGamingWiki PCGW - an encyclopedia of PC game fixes that should answer most questions you have with particular games.
 
Last game I played on PC was Skyrim. Fucking loved it, but I could already see that my video card was struggling... and it reminded me why I started to move away from PC gaming and go towards consoles.

It's just too expensive to game on a PC. You need high-end shit, and keep upgrading it. Plus you always have the occasional bugs that come up and mess up your experience.

I still love PC gaming, and don't think it's gonna die anytime soon. Some games are way better played with a mouse than a controller.
 
Personally I think PC gaming is having a bit of a revival at the moment with Steam, Onlive etc. (When the network infrastructure can support Onlive better it will kill consoles & PC gaming imo, but I digress..) There's lots of indy games. Certainly a lot cheaper than console gaming, too, when you factor in sales. Check out the humble bundle for example.

You can build a decent rig for around £500 (components probably cheaper stateside.) Obviously for FPS and strategy keyboard and mouse is the way forward, but most games will work 'out of the box' with Xbox controllers these days, which makes life a lot easier.

I've been really tempted to build one myself, but right now I'm only playing Civ 5, Rust & Super meat boy, all of which work OK with my laptop. Not to mention that my PS3 is still sitting in the corner gathering dust, so can't really justify the expense!
 
Just built a gaming rig because my XBox 360 died. Do it. XBox controller works with 90% of my games and the ones that don't I use XPadder to map keys and mouse clicks to 360 controller buttons. Works like a champ. Total setup cost me about $550.

Core i5 Processor LGA1155
8 GB Ram
AMD Radeon R9 270
Couple of TB hard drives I had laying around
750w power supply

Runs pretty much everything I throw at it at 1080i. Great thing is in a few years I can put a core i7 and a AMD R9 290x in it and game for another 2-3 years on max res.

Not to mention there are a ton of awesome indy games for PC that never make it to PS and Xbox. Also doubles as a HTPC for playing the movies I borrow from my good friend TPB.
 
avatar33 said:
Last game I played on PC was Skyrim. Fucking loved it, but I could already see that my video card was struggling... and it reminded me why I started to move away from PC gaming and go towards consoles.

It's just too expensive to game on a PC. You need high-end shit, and keep upgrading it. Plus you always have the occasional bugs that come up and mess up your experience.
Click to expand...

Huh? I actually haven't upgraded my PC in like 2 years because I don't need to, everything works just fine. Skyrim on max settings, HD textures & enb runs with no framerate issues..

http://i.imgur.com/X1LrxHt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xfMTSJP.jpg

Edit: Also check out Trade your software here! Steam games for next t o nothing, got Skyrim Legendary Edition for $12.

Edit 2: OP, watch some Tek Syndicate:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srmmt0-vrD8"]Kill Your Console Build Option #3: $750 Gaming PC - YouTube[/ame]
 
dmnEPC said:
Is this a dumb idea? How are the game selections? Can you use a xbox style controler? How much would a guy need to spend on a GPU that will play any game for next 3 years?

Or do I just get a console and move on?
Click to expand...

PC gaming is alive and doing very well, so no it's not a dumb idea. The game selection is very diverse, tons of games. You can use an xbox controller, just plug it in. To run games coming out over the next 3 years, and for them to look good, $300+ for a proper graphics card that will last a few years.

I don't see the advantages of console gaming. There are console exclusives and there is just nothing you can do about it, but lots of console games come to PC (especially AAA titles).
 
ShadowCaster said:
Huh? I actually haven't upgraded my PC in like 2 years because I don't need to, everything works just fine. Skyrim on max settings, HD textures & enb runs with no framerate issues..

http://i.imgur.com/X1LrxHt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xfMTSJP.jpg

Edit: Also check out Trade your software here! Steam games for next t o nothing, got Skyrim Legendary Edition for $12.

Edit 2: OP, watch some Tek Syndicate:

Kill Your Console Build Option #3: $750 Gaming PC - YouTube
Click to expand...


vGJpls8.png
 
There are quite a few Steam Boxes out ( 13 Steam Boxes, Ranked ) that would do exactly what you want.

I have a gaming rig that was connected to my tv, driving games were fun but I can't get used to FPS games without a mouse. Wireless mice are usually delayed by a few ms but in a FPS that is enough to make you suck fast.

You can buy a wireless usb receiver for the 360 controllers. It works great.
 
Please don't buy a steam box, that's like PC gaming for retards. And to answer your question which has been answered numerous times, no PC gaming is not dead and no it's not a silly idea to build a gaming rig. My computer is old as hell now, a 3-4 year old HP that I take good care of and it still games perfectly fine. Also yes you can hook up a controller but it's mostly unrecommended if you're playing FPS, MOBAS, MMoS, basically anything that's not an indie sidescroller like Super Meat Boy or a racing game.

Another great thing about PC gaming is free games, TF2, Dota 2, LoL, a select few MMo's, and steam sometimes has sales that makes games 75 - 99% off, awesome right? You'd never get that with console games. Honestly I swear by the computer, I think consoles are a waste of money, they're basically computers that are limited to only being able to play games optimally.

But if sitting on the couch and playing NHL 2k15 with the bros is your idea of gaming then you'll probably want to look into buying a PS4, PC gaming is much more competitive and 'solitary', unless you have other buddies with gaming rigs to play with, hope this helped bro.
 
Thanks for all the advice gays. I have not bought a prebuilt PC since about 1990 (233mhz 600 mb hard drive). So no prebuilt steambox for me. So I guess that does it. A new gaming rig it shall be.
 
  • Like
Reactions: miketpowell
So I have not played a game on a PC since wolfenstein and leisure suit larry. But I woke up with a crazy idea of building a gaming rig. I've been sitting in limbo with my 360 not really being to crazy about all the limitations with the xbone or ps4.
Click to expand...

I just put together a new rig around a month ago. Plenty of games for the PC, most of the big titles included. There is also the large modding communities that (in nearly all cases) help to enhance the games overall. I also have a PS4 and think it's amazing.

Is this a dumb idea? How are the game selections? Can you use a xbox style controler? How much would a guy need to spend on a GPU that will play any game for next 3 years?
Click to expand...

Yep, a simple usb connector and you are ready to go.

Or do I just get a console and move on?
Click to expand...

Get both. I get games I want to be able to mod on PC. I always get NBA 2K on console and PC. This year, the PC is running next gen graphics for that particular title, and I've pre-oredered both. The console is for gaming with friends and family with me, and the PC is for single (me time) play.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom