The PC Thread (Games, Viruses, BSOD etc).....................

[Geti]

I'm cheap

arent most people on the internet?
anyone tried cortex command? damn fun little game.

[fog]

The online aspect of games these days has a lot to answer for when it comes to cost.  In the good old days of the last gen consoles, apart from the odd really big release I'd happily wait a few weeks or months to pick up most titles cheap.  Now though with things like Live you can see that all your friends are playing them from release day so the temptation to buy straight away is too much. 

[EricT]

So, GTA4 on PC turned out to be the biggest joke EVER. First it shoves DRM and third party shit at you like there's no tomorrow, then it runs like absolute CRAP on any system you give it to, then it tosses a few blue screens here and there, then in the case you happen to have a windows meltdown (most likely due to the wonderful securom placement), you can't even back up your save games.

PC gaming? DEAD.

[fog]

So, GTA4 on PC turned out to be the biggest joke EVER. First it shoves DRM and third party shit at you like there's no tomorrow, then it runs like absolute CRAP on any system you give it to, then it tosses a few blue screens here and there, then in the case you happen to have a windows meltdown (most likely due to the wonderful securom placement), you can't even back up your save games.

PC gaming? DEAD.

I've always found this a bit curious TBH.  I mean I know there's more to it than running say 360 code on a PC, but surely matching the performance of the relatively old hardware in the 360 shouldn't be a problem for a modern PC?

[EricT]

Well, it seems the problem is that they're using some sort of emulation system for a lot of aspects of the engine. Most of the files don't even seem to be changed/optimized from the console versions (with various console related notes found throughout the decompiled files).

Rockstar hasn't come out and said "Ok, yeah, we totally messed up guys, we tried something really stupid, we realize how bad we did things, we're sorry... please continue getting your refunds", which sickens me. Should have known the game would be doomed the second Securom was announced to make an appearance in EVERY (including the steam) version.

Memory and CPU hog can't even describe this game. It leaks like hell in gameplay, sometimes managing to use up to 4gb's of memory as well as 85% of an average quad core processor. And forget about running this on a dual core, it eats them ALIVE. Leaving them bitter and overheated. Reports of damages to hardware have even come in due to the obvious power management problems (it seems to either want to not run your hardware like normal, or run it into the f**king ground resulting in a blue screen or worse), granted unconfirmed (some people insist a game cannot damage hardware, but I disagree. Bad coding can lead to an overtaxing of a piece of hardware, and if the right safeties don't get implemented by the PC due to a number of reasons, you could end up with a nice hardware malfunction). The FPS is insanely unstable, you can run the benchmark test and hit 50 FPS, and then run it again on the same settings and get 15 FPS. The graphic rendering in game is terrible to the point of distracting. Depending on your card you may end up with shadows that artifact, no textures, artifacted textures, or just a blank screen followed by a blue screen. Alone in the Dark 5 would be considered a monument to coding glory in a competition with this.

I actually got a refund from Valve for my steam purchase, as have many others. It's just not worth the money.

[fog]

That sounds seriously messed up mate.  If I didn't know any better I'd say all these developers want to kill the PC gaming market and wont be happy until you've all bought consoles, making development a whole lot simpler for them. 

What are PC game sales like?  Do the big titles still turn in big profits of is that restricted to phenememememenoms like The Sims and WoW?

[EricT]

That sounds seriously messed up mate.  If I didn't know any better I'd say all these developers want to kill the PC gaming market and wont be happy until you've all bought consoles, making development a whole lot simpler for them. 

What are PC game sales like?  Do the big titles still turn in big profits of is that restricted to phenememememenoms like The Sims and WoW?

It's real hard to figure out a games sales when it comes to PC. The figures most studios release don't include services such as Steam and Direct2Drive in them, perhaps the strongest area of sales. Sometimes you'll hear the sales figure from a steam game (left 4 dead, for instance, has sold millions already, most of which were preordered on steam weeks before the game came out). So when you see the ol "we sold only xxxx copies because of piracy thats why we need DRM", they're not accounting for digital distribution. Gabe Newell (valve dude) knows this, and has been getting more and more "vocal" (via emails to be people) to the DRM methods used by these companies as A) they're ridiculous, B) the companies aren't really suffering and he has the data to show this.

[fog]

That sounds seriously messed up mate.  If I didn't know any better I'd say all these developers want to kill the PC gaming market and wont be happy until you've all bought consoles, making development a whole lot simpler for them. 

What are PC game sales like?  Do the big titles still turn in big profits of is that restricted to phenememememenoms like The Sims and WoW?

It's real hard to figure out a games sales when it comes to PC. The figures most studios release don't include services such as Steam and Direct2Drive in them, perhaps the strongest area of sales. Sometimes you'll hear the sales figure from a steam game (left 4 dead, for instance, has sold millions already, most of which were preordered on steam weeks before the game came out). So when you see the ol "we sold only xxxx copies because of piracy thats why we need DRM", they're not accounting for digital distribution. Gabe Newell (valve dude) knows this, and has been getting more and more "vocal" (via emails to be people) to the DRM methods used by these companies as A) they're ridiculous, B) the companies aren't really suffering and he has the data to show this.

Much like with the music industry, I'd love to see some reliable unbiased information on how piracy effects game sales.  If people within the industry, like Gabe Newell, are questioning the evidense then you have to wonder.

All I ever hear from the music industry are excellent media friendly sound bites like "CD sales are 25% lower than they were 3 years ago".  Yeah they may well be, but how many music downloads were you selling 3 years ago? 

[fog]

Total War: Empires delayed until March now.  Gah, it's the only PC game series I still have any interest in.  Oh well, at least it's alomst guaranteed to be worth the wait. 

[PaulCunningham]

Space Giraffe PC released today (or is it still yesterday over there?)

[fog]

Space Giraffe PC released today (or is it still yesterday over there?)

No it's definately today over here.  Although it might be tomorrow where you are by now 

Cheers for the heads up anyway.  I'm having a few enforced "rest days" and had totally missed that news!

Just looking now....What's with the PC price?  Ill get it to support Jeff and Giles, but I don't see how charging 3 or 4 times the XBLA price is going to help reach a wider market (although I guess right now maximizing profit is more important and his fanbase will pay pretty much whatever is charged).

Fingers crossed it does well for them.   

[TheKhakinator]

Much like with the music industry, I'd love to see some reliable unbiased information on how piracy effects game sales.  If people within the industry, like Gabe Newell, are questioning the evidense then you have to wonder.

All I ever hear from the music industry are excellent media friendly sound bites like "CD sales are 25% lower than they were 3 years ago".  Yeah they may well be, but how many music downloads were you selling 3 years ago? 

Piracy is selling me a lot more CDs. If I hadn't been able to download The Offspring's songs, I never would have bought their album. Same for The Strokes, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Dandy Warhols... the list goes on. Virtually every CD I've bought in the past two years has been due to the fact I can download tracks to find what I like. It really helps because radio is no longer an efficient way of hearing new music for me.

[fog]

Much like with the music industry, I'd love to see some reliable unbiased information on how piracy effects game sales.  If people within the industry, like Gabe Newell, are questioning the evidense then you have to wonder.

All I ever hear from the music industry are excellent media friendly sound bites like "CD sales are 25% lower than they were 3 years ago".  Yeah they may well be, but how many music downloads were you selling 3 years ago? 

Piracy is selling me a lot more CDs. If I hadn't been able to download The Offspring's songs, I never would have bought their album. Same for The Strokes, The Kaiser Chiefs, The Dandy Warhols... the list goes on. Virtually every CD I've bought in the past two years has been due to the fact I can download tracks to find what I like. It really helps because radio is no longer an efficient way of hearing new music for me.

Same here.  I'm buying more CD's than ever and thanks to being able to "sample" a wider range of artists thanks to the net, I can now support smaller bands that don't get any help from radio.

A couple of years ago the big record labels could control what we bought because the only way we could hear music was on radio, the output of which they pretty much controlled.  Now we have access to a much wider range of artists and I'm sure the larger labels don't like that.

[EricT]

Fear 2 demo came out. Amazing. Purely AMAZING.

I haven't had that much fun playing a shooter in years. The AI is grand, the weapons are awesome, and the scares are even better. Game of the year has been DECIDED. And kudos to the sound designers for this game. If you're playing this with shit speakers, you're losing out. Pump up the volume on this, it's worth it.

Can't wait for the full game.

That said, I see console FPS fans not liking this one bit. Not enough Run and Gun to keep their small minds entertained, and too much emphasis on using your arsenal effectively for their minds to calculate.

[TheKhakinator]

Sounds great. Seems they've built on the things that made the original great (AI, weapons, sound) and then actually added the fear that was just so lacking in the original.