Valve: Why the PC is the future Comments by Oli Welsh

Spyware, spyware, spyware, I hate the steam system it is deeply insidious, why can't they use dongles or usb keys. I have just bought a new PC(with an NVidia SLI 8600GT) I have also bought a load of games because I know that this is the only time I will be able to play them an 8800GT will not outlast the current consoles, developers move on. PCs are great but not for gaming value, with the exception of MMOs (given large exception for some).

In case the cost argument hasn't yet been invalidated, you can quite easily build a PC, for the price of a PS3, that will run games at a higher resolution, framerate and visual quality.

(This is not the same as buying a PC from PC World for £299.99.)

Add to that the cheaper cost of PC games and the massive flexibility of the platform, there's no contest.

Then, next year, buy a new graphics card and maybe a bit more RAM for a couple of hundred quid and PS3 and 360 games will look laughably ugly by comparison.

It's worth pointing out though that PC gaming and console gaming are different experiences and there's a matter of preference to playing sofa/TV games or desk/monitor games.

@ nat - Well, I don't care, so long as these futuristic consoles come with all the advantages of the PC. If in your "flexibility" you include the ability to use any peripherals whatsoever, including keyboard/mouse, (not Microsoft branded ones OR NOTHING!), the ability to create and use mods without having to have them approved by some faceless corporate type, etc. etc. Even then, it would suck - I have almost two decades worth of back catalogue that I wouldn't be able to play, unless they somehow made these new consoles able to play pc games. But then they're basically PCs. Can you see these futuristic consoles not being a closed system? Or are we still going to be paying 40 quid a year to use one huge monolithic online service etc? Will devs have to get permission before they can publish a game for these consoles? If all of these issues are addressed, then who cares what platform we're on I guess

THen again, if all of that is addressed, we're still talking about consoles becoming pcs, not the other way around. I don't think it's wishful thinking at all myself. I mean, surely even as a diehard console-only gamer, you can see some of the advantages (listed above) of the PC as a gaming platform?

Chufty - "In case the cost argument hasn't yet been invalidated, you can quite easily build a PC, for the price of a PS3, that will run games at a higher resolution, framerate and visual quality."

Yes, you can but that PC will definitely not be capable of running all the games released for it for the same lifespan as the PS3 without paying for upgrades. That is the beauty of owning a console... the fact that you know it'll play all the game released for it over its five or six year lifespan. Sure by the end of its life the games will start to look a little creaky but good developers can milk more performance out of them due to experience with the hardware, which isn't the case with the PC at all because there's trillions of different hardware combinations which makes it near impossible. If a game doesn't run well on a PC, well you just upgrade it. Console developers don't have that luxury so they have to work harder to achieve the same results. End result console owners probably get more value for money out of their hardware than most PC owners do with theirs, at least as far as games go (PCs obviously have more uses besides games obviously).

I know console games generally cost more but I think it's worth it for the mostly hassle-free time you have with them. I'd rather buy a new console every five years than have to upgrade my PC every six-twelve months.

@Chufty: "In case the cost argument hasn't yet been invalidated, you can quite easily build a PC, for the price of a PS3, that will run games at a higher resolution, framerate and visual quality."

Sure, YOU could probably spec one up in an hour or so, then when the parts arrive, assemble them in another hour or so, then spend another two hours installing and patching Windows. Or, you could have spent 4 hours playing a game.

A less experienced person might end up taking a whole afternoon speccing up the PC, then when it arrived, spend longer learning how to put it together. The time they've taken building a PC, they could have played Crackdown from beginning to end.

Then there's plenty of people who would give up long before they've built a PC. Yet these same people would have no trouble buying a console from a shop and setting it up.

"I'd rather buy a new console every five years than have to upgrade my PC every six-twelve months."
So don't upgrade it every 12 months :P You could upgrade it once every 3 years and it would still outperform a console! My PC which I bought last September will outperform both of the current "next gen" *shudder* consoles as it is. It still runs anything coming out with no problems and will continue to do so for another year or two, when I may have to spend 100 quid on a new GPU. I really don't understand this "constant upgrade cycle" myth. But hey, no matter how many times we tell it how it is it still gets propagated all over the place (Mainly by people who aren't actually pc gamers - not a dig at you btw, I know you actually were one). I just.. don't get it.

Valve are a great developer and I think they just have a dislike of consoles (PS3 only?). It's thier business and they can chosse to support whatever platformt they want.

IF they 'dislike' consoles, it's because moving into that market proper would not provide the profit to mitigate the costs of shifting focus away from their large and established PC market. It's not about harbouring a resentment against you, your console of choice, or your dog. If a company notices a way to make money, they'll do it.
It's the same with Stardock, Taleworlds, Irontower Studios etc. They don't see the realisation of profit in consoles, don't have experience with the tools and/or can't stump up the fees to get into consoles. Such is life on a platform with one company's iron grip on it.

I'm very happy with PC gaming, as I have been for some 16 years. Sure, there've been tantrums and upsets along the way but when there were, I just manned up and learnt a bit about the machine I was using. IRQs, DMA, memmaker, EMM386, it's a rich tapestry.

There's a nice sense of achievement and satisfaction when you finish building a PC and turn it on for the first time, and indeed when you encounter a problem that you solve all by yourself. Maybe that's some latent memory of playing with Meccano or something coming into play. The manly pursuit of fitting things together, of BUILDING. Could only be made better if you could get a hammer involved somewhere in the process. Maybe a spanner an' all.

It's the driver thing etc. that bugs me. Yes I well remember sodding about with IRQs, DMAs, boot menus and the like, and things have been improved. But it's virtually impossible for the developer to predict the massive amount of permutations of hardware configs there are out there. And I turned my back on PC gaming a long time ago because I just couldn't be arsed.

I read late last year about everyone and his mum saying how great Portal was, so in January I decided to install Steam and download.

I've still never played it because Intel haven't released drivers that make my gfx card work with the game. It's so infuriating.

I feel the PC as it stands at this point in time, is the clumsiest way of playing video games.

I can see your point, but the pc is far less clumsy how it handles certain factors. Most pc games allow me to set-up my control scheme exactly how I like (this includes mouse support being standard, I dont like fps, Battlefield etc games on a pad) whereas on the 360 I get what I'm given.

Although xbox live is nice and simple and makes connecting to games easy, I find the performance of on line games is inferior to the PC. When I'm playing PC games I will make sure I connect to a server reasonably close (In the UK or at least Europe), with xbox live I get chucked in with players all over the world, and unsurprisingly this leads to far more lag You see far more jittering and rubber banding. Why can't I chose? I would never connect to a US server when I'm playing Battlefield or whatever on my pc.this really annoys me!

If I had the option to customise things like this on console,I would be a happy man, but this isn't going to happen so I guess I'm going to have to keep my pc up to date.

Plus not to mention you can get user made mods and levels for a lot of pc games, and some of these are really good.

Why compare graphics to the 360? I bet everyone in this thread has a PC with more powerful hardware than the most popular console.

the only advantage PCs owners have is making use of ongoing increase in power, at a price.

That's one of the advantages. I would say the main advantage is that it's an open, unlicensed system. Anybody can do whatever they like on it. I use Winamp for most of my multimedia needs because I like it. If you don't like it you can use something else. It doesn't matter. If you don't like the XMB, then you don't like the PS3. There's not really much you can do about it. Likewise for codecs. My PS3 plays half my videos, the 360 plays the other half. My PC just plays all of them.

Oh, one other thing I keep hearing from PC proponents is the ridiculous argument of "you can do other things with it like web browsing and word processing and listening music". Yes, and I can do that with a PC I got on a yard sale for 25 quid, too!

Well YOU could. I certainly wouldn't want to! I think the point is that you can buy a PC to run applications for £150, and you can buy a PC that'll do that and games for £250 more. That's cheaper, or at least not more expensive, than getting the cheap PC and a games console, so for the billions of people in the world for whom a PC is an essential tool, it's a cheap way to get gaming. My PC may have cost £300 more than my PS3, but it has £300 worth of extra functionality.

If PC gaming is dying then it's not just because of the expense of upgrading, it's also because people don't want the hassle of trying to get the games running properly in the first place. Why does this game keep crashing? Is it out-dated graphics drivers, some other incompatible hardware driver or a conflict with some other software I'm running? Why is the game keeping juddering... why does it keep asking me to insert the original disc when it's already in the drive, etc., etc.?

Jesus, have you actually tried running a PC game in the last 15 years? What the hell are you doing? Personally, I put the disc in, install the game, download the updates (if I can be arsed) and then start playing. It's a remarkably similar system to the one the PS3 offers nowadays. With Steam I just set it downloading and then come back when it has finished and start playing. I can't think of the last time I had serious compatability problems. Possibly F16 Falcon on my mum's 386. I had to make a boot disk.

I'm sick and tired of upgrading my PC all the time only to discover that the latest games run like a turd in a funnel.
Thanks but no thanks, I'll stick to my X360 and Wii for gaming.

Edit: Oh and I prefer a large plasma screen and joypad to a computer monitor and mouse/keyboard combo. But maybe it's just me.

@Daikon

You upgrade your PC all the time and they still look like "turd in a funnel"? You must really know what you're doing.
And let me introduce you to a concept called resolution. Bigger != better.

PC gaming is dead and buried about as dead as the RROD 360 but they are both microsoft platforms. LOL!
PS3 rules, with Cell processor and its real time weapon change and awesome blu ray drive.

halo sucks lol!

It's obviously not just you :P That's your PREROGATIVE! I much prefer sitting by a monitor with a keyboard and mouse, and that's me for you. Neither of us is wrong, it's a preference.

Just because X prefers consoles doesn't make Y, who prefers PCs, a spacker, and vice versa. Important lesson for us all!

It's not about graphical fidelity, system power, versatility, upgrading, etc. I just want to put the disk in, sit back on my sofa with my wireless controller and PLAY.

Yeah but PCs have more poglyons, innit.

My PC may have cost £300 more than my PS3, but it has £300 worth of extra functionality.

Are you referring to the cup holder?

@Plugmonkey: "Jesus, have you actually tried running a PC game in the last 15 years? What the hell are you doing?"

I've installed three Steam games in the last couple of months. Audiosurf just wouldn't work, until I found a forum that told me to download a .DLL from some arbitrary site and put it in my system folder. Trackmania Nations didn't work until I rebooted (but there were no messages advising me to do so). Railroad Tycoon worked first time (but there were forum posts suggesting that other people had big problems, and it didn't work at all in Vista). 1 out of three is not a good ratio.

As much as it's easier than it used to be (I'm old enough to remember tweaking autoexec.bat) - to compete with consoles it has to work every time.

"It's not about graphical fidelity, system power, versatility, upgrading, etc. I just want to put the disk in, sit back on my sofa with my wireless controller and PLAY. "

Rar. That's fine! But what you need to understand is that for a lot of people it IS about graphical fidelity, system power, versatility etc. Some people don't get off on sofa gaming (I play all my consoles at a desk, too), and on the odd occasion I DO feel like sitting back, I can just get my wireless 360 pad and use that instead. They're both valid preferences.

@ukslim

1 out of three is not a good ratio.

You're quite right its not, similar to the ratio of Xbox360's that fail. At least all you had to do was copy a single file. Beats sending it back to receive a second hand replacement in return.

:hahayou: "Why compare graphics to the 360? I bet everyone in this thread has a PC with more powerful hardware than the most popular console."

Not me. My laptop is powerful enough for all my development work (although, hey, we'd all like more performance), but Spore Creature Creator won't start, saying that my graphics hardware isn't good enough.

@ katsumoto

"Crytek haven't stopped PC development. They said they are no longer going to make PC games -exclusively-. "

They have also stated that this all 100% depends on how Warhead is received, and how well the copying measures they are planning to include actually hold up into generating more sales. The same sales that were so drastically cut down when Crysis was released. So basically Warhead will make or break if they remain PC only, and they simply want everyone to go out and support this ideal in a none illegal fashion which is a more than reasonable request.

So just a quick few words to all you pirate dicks out there..basically just "GTFO and stop killing off the platform ffs". And no I don't want to hear all that "I want to try a game before I buy it" bs, just like anything you buy you are taking a chance on it being a worthy investment. You don't go into a whorehouse and request a free bj before you are satisfied enough do the dirty with your chosen wench now do you? Which reminds me I must get back to The Witcher, hmmm......

Its all good and well that Valve thinks the pc market is the most successful, but they're in the small circle of pc devs who have experience in the market as well as the resources to be in the position they are in. How about other pc devs? What about their point of view, have they been as successful as Valve? I'd rather hear from someone other than Valve, I already know about their success stories.

Its been mentionned already, but i'd have to say one of the biggest issues for me is the enviroment in which i play games. Sitting up to a desk and playing with a mouse and keyboard simply doesn't appeal to me. Immature perhaps, but being able to sit on the sofa, TV other side of the room and wireless pad in hand is unbeatable (i'm sure you can buy these things for a PC too...but still)

I have played many PC games, and found a few to be outstanding, but the solitary experience isn't something i crave any longer. As a kid i'd play even console games alone, but growing into my twenties the social element appeals greatly, and by that i don't mean online gaming. I've loved playing through epic games on my own, but really the expriences of having the family play wii sports at Christmas, and Smash Bros on import a few weeks ago with some friends were simply amazing. Fun, real memories....

Went a bit nostalgic, but i guess the thing to remember here is that all consoles and PCs exist and do quite well in their own rights. Theres no need for pissing contests along the lines of - the PC is the future/ consoles are the best etc. Opinions are like arseholes.....everyone has one.. :o)

PC has Quakeworld.

Therefore PC wins.

"It's not about graphical fidelity, system power, versatility, upgrading, etc. I just want to put the disk in, sit back on my sofa with my wireless controller and PLAY."

Quite opposite for me. The one thing I hate with WII is the trouble to get a game running; I have to put TV on, find controller, notice that there is wrong disc in, go to kneel down in front of if (I'm too old for kneel down), find the case, find the game I want to play... With PC it's so nice to just sit down and double click. I have four year old PC and I have no idea when I last updated any drivers, maybe couple of years ago (except automatic Windows updates). So easy.

It also has to be nostalgia, the PC is where Valve has its roots.
I still remember running Half-Life on my fresh new minty Voodoo 2 PC for the first time like it was yesterday....

I believe that children are our future, not PC's. Teach them well and let them lead the way.

Sexual Chocolate... they play so fine don't you agree?

@mcbi4kh2: Explain how the PC needs to "catch up".

Have you even been reading anything? The PC "market" is so fragmented that you'll never reach all customers with most games, and you won't reach 90% of them with games with high system requirements. Just recently a friend told me he went to buy a new PC game and they had to tell him "it may not run", and if it didn't, he could return it. Retailers certainly don't want that. They want to be able to say, here's an xbox game, I can sell this to anyone with an xbox.

Why don't you explain how PC game sales keep lagging behind if there's such a ridiculously gigantic userbase?

"It also has to be nostalgia, the PC is where Valve has its roots.
I still remember running Half-Life on my fresh new minty Voodoo 2 PC for the first time like it was yesterday.... "

Don't we all.

*switches game to hardware open gl mode*

Holyyyy f*ckballs!!! 0_0

I've still never played it because Intel haven't released drivers that make my gfx card work with the game. It's so infuriating.

This is the problem. If you have an Intel graphics chip, your PC is not capable of running games like Portal.

People just don't have the knowledge and/or the interest to build a gaming PC and so are forced to buy them - usually paying over the odds for an underpowered PC that will not last and is difficult to upgrade.

AMD have recently unveiled their 'GAME' badge system to try and muscle in on this gap in the market, so I think companies are starting to wise up to these problems.

Microsoft could help too - where's Vista Gaming Edition?

"Just recently a friend told me he went to buy a new PC game and they had to tell him "it may not run", and if it didn't, he could return it. Retailers certainly don't want that. They want to be able to say, here's an xbox game, I can sell this to anyone with an xbox."

Yeah but they also can't wait to say "Hey kid! Here's Gears of War 2, yeah it's exactly like the first but we know you will want it anyway, enjoy!".

Suckers. :p

You know where all this is leading: nowhere. Some people like playing games on PCs. Some people prefer consoles. And their tastes will change as their lives do:

- teenager with a desk and a PC in your room: probably game on that
- child who's not allowed a PC in their room due to porn fears: probably use a console
- student in a room with a desk: PC
- your own home, your living room is your own: console
- got kids, the study is your haven: PC gaming again
- etc.

Consoles won't die. PC gaming won't either. The end.

PCs do cost more than consoles, and you do need to faff about updating software & hardware every few years, but they are the best gaming platform available.

Im not looking down at consoles at all, as they are top quality machines these days, but while there people who are willing to pay for the best and most varied gaming experience available, PC gaming will continue to thrive.

I was nodding along in agreement to this article until he got to the bit where he was saying the pc is good because you can patch games. This is fine with games like tf2. But he also condones patching games to 'ease painful crunches'.

As far as im concerned thats un acceptable, no company should be releasing a half baked game! I dont buy any other products expecting them not to be finished only to have the manufacturer send me the parts later so why should i accept that with my games!

Why don't you explain how PC game sales keep lagging behind if there's such a ridiculously gigantic userbase?


And we all know, more sales must mean it's much better. Of course.

Not to mention that ridiculous comparisons are always made. Like comparing the entire console market (including handhelds) to the PC, etc.

In the end, I am where I think the better games are. And that's still the PC for me, by a countrymile. Everything else is less important.

"PCs do cost more than consoles, and you do need to faff about updating software & hardware every few years, but they are the best gaming platform available."

Seriously, you don't have to do squat if you are content enough with what you have. I know people who are still playing WoW on machines that I thought would have been fossilised by now. And y'know what? They don't care if they only get 12-15fps when playing, they still manage to enjoy the game on offer.

Please, everyone stop trying to be reasonable. You're undermining the tribalism.

The planet CANNOT accomodate a market for five or more gaming platforms. There must be a WINNER. That winner is [my platform of choice], and it will destroy all the other platforms; bestriding the earth as a monopoly and enjoying the fruits of its utter dominance. This will probably be a good thing, because monopolies always work out best. Everyone knows providing free choice to the consumer is foul.

Don't be silly man. There's always time for war.

THIS. IS. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Oh alright, own what you like then, see if I care.

Hrumph.

PC gamers are becoming more insecure than ever. Personally I don't care, all you fanboys can suck on it.. I also think the PS2 dwarves every other machine out there! But let's face it, there'll always be a place for PCs. Emulators run best on PCs, and you can encode DivX shit on it too! Yay!

Wankers.

(prolly my least civil post yet.. but you're a sad bunch!)

"Are you referring to the cup holder?"

Are you being facetious? No, I'm talking about word processing, spreadsheets, selling things on ebay and printing the labels straight off with one click, photo editing and printing, video editing, music mixing, cd burning, filesharing and a million and one other things I completely take for granted.

ukslim: Re 1out of 3 on Steam: Blimey, that does suck. I guess I was just born lucky. ;)

"Immature perhaps, but being able to sit on the sofa, TV other side of the room and wireless pad in hand is unbeatable (i'm sure you can buy these things for a PC too...but still)"

Indeed you can. I've got a wireless mouse + keyboard, and if I felt so inclined I could very easily just plug my PC into my TV, which is just a glorified LCD PC monitor after all. The only reason I don't is I use the PC to play games when the girlfiend is watching CSI or House. I might swap the PC and the 360 over for a bit and see what big screen PC gaming is like. As LCD TVs become more prevalent, I think the days of peoples' PCs being on a desk in the corner of the room will come to an end. There's no real reason for the two to be separate anymore.

If you have an Intel graphics chip, your PC is not capable of running games like Portal.

Why?

I'm not PC-thick, but I've never heard this before. Valve certainly don't say so on their website when I'm downloading Portal, instead stating that it exceeds rec. specs. Regardless of my own selfish issue, it's demonstrative of the idea that some people don't want to (or aren't able to) pay out for extra hardware for their machine that already runs other applications, including similarly intensive games. The tecnological advantage of PCs - the ability to switch components as you wish - is the biggest barrier to PC gaming dominance.

"PC gamers are becoming more insecure than ever."

How ironic then you feel the need to come onto a page which clearly has no relevance to your hobby and slam complete strangers. Twat.

People are still running the "you have to constantly upgrade your PC so you can run the latest game at a resolution higher than real life and anti aliasing in triple-digits" line? Christ's sakes. No, you don't. A decent PC(Running you about £600, with everything thrown in) will play games, looking damn nice, for about three or four years.

If you do need to upgrade, whack in a new graphics card, which usually costs about half as much as a console.

Then, you save money on the games, and the free online multiplayer.

No, it aint that expensive. Stop acting like this is the mid-80s where a decent PC cost £3000 and you had to build it from a kit you bought from Sir Clive.

imo, console gaming has overtaken pc gaming

i much prefer COD4 on 360 over the pc version anyday. hardly any cheaters for a start.

pc gaming is stale

@NKSR

In what way has console games taken over PC games?

for a start consoles are plug n play. no need for patches etc. games update themselves. xbox live is a fantastic service. gaming online on a large tv, combined with wireless rumble controllers is much more fun than sitting at a desk on a pc

just my opinion of course

"In what way has console games taken over PC games?"

It's obviously a weight thing. A console, especially a Wii, weighs considerably less than a PC. Give a console and a PC a car to drive (I am assuming they can drive cars?) and the weight advantage will allow the console to accelerate faster.

I have no idea whether PCs or consoles are better on corners though.

"I'm not PC-thick, but I've never heard this before."

Yeah, you are. The official Portal page clearly states the game requires a Direct X 8 level graphics card. Intel don't make graphics cards - Nvidia and ATI do.

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?...