PC gaming became just a pain

[Romano338]

I'm so disappointed at how much of a pain gaming on PC became over the years...
I bought a gaming PC to catch up a bit on some games I missed over the last few years, with life and all. I'm at that point where I just want to buy the game, install it, play it.
But it turns out it's never that easy. Games are riddled with problem. You have crashes, error messages, issues everywhere. So you go online, look for answers. Some people say "this" works. Some say "that" works. Ultimately, it doesn't. It works for some people, it doesn't for other people. You have to try to disable some brand new features from the last generation of GPU (yeah right, I bought an expensive GPU to disable everywthing it gives me, in order to play a game?!)
And you quickly spend more time trying to fix issues than you are playing...

I've never been pro-PC or pro-console. I usually prefer PC though. But I can't help but think that games on console give way less issues. Which is good for casuals who don't want the bother. BUt will the casual be willing to buy a console to play here and there? I know I'm not.
But PC just becomes impossible.
Last 2 games I tried (not games from the last 6 months either), I had so many issues I gave up and got a refund. Thankfully those weren't Steam games because I would have been boned, with the 2 hours limit to get a refund...

There you go, just a rant. Sorry if you're not interested or disagree, but that's how it is for me.

[Doctor Go-Go]

I bought a Dreamcast the moment it was available so I could play CODE VERONICA! The Sonic game wasn't so great, it seemed like some improvised short notice project to favor Sega because they couldn't be SEGA without SONIC!

[eram]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Doctor Go-Go:

I bought a Dreamcast the moment it was available so I could play CODE VERONICA! The Sonic game wasn't so great, it seemed like some improvised short notice project to favor Sega because they couldn't be SEGA without SONIC!

Phantasy Star Online. Waiting outside the game store to open :D

[Incarnate]

I don't disagree.

Thing is the PC platform is high risk, high reward. With the inept ports and high overhead we also get far better graphics/framerate, emulation, innumerable mods, insane customization, free multiplayer, abandonware, etc.

[eram]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

I don't disagree.

Thing is the PC platform is high risk, high reward. With the inept ports and high overhead we also get far better graphics/framerate, emulation, innumerable mods, insane customization, free multiplayer, abandonware, etc.

lol

click button on steam, play..

so risky such rewards.

[Incarnate]

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

I don't disagree.

Thing is the PC platform is high risk, high reward. With the inept ports and high overhead we also get far better graphics/framerate, emulation, innumerable mods, insane customization, free multiplayer, abandonware, etc.

lol

click button on steam, play..

so risky such rewards.

Cool, you've played three games on Steam. Otherwise you'd know most modern PC are broken or buggy on launch.

Probably half the games released before 2010 are borderline unplayable without third-party mods and patches. Not even joking when I say you need four or five separate fixes just to get Max Payne running. I envy the PC gamer that doesn't know what "Game for Windows Live" is.

[eram]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

lol

click button on steam, play..

so risky such rewards.

Cool, you've played three games on Steam. Otherwise you'd know most modern PC are broken or buggy on launch.

Probably half the games released before 2010 are borderline unplayable without third-party mods and patches. Not even joking when I say you need four or five separate fixes just to get Max Payne running. I envy the PC gamer that doesn't know what "Game for Windows Live" is.

yes 3 games
GFWL is still running today you can add GFWL keys still.

i have 1 game from 2001 that stopped working on windows 11 and that annoys me somewhat. the other 1000s are still ok.

got 8024 dos games have you? because i have :D
(eXoDOS)

[Incarnate]

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Cool, you've played three games on Steam. Otherwise you'd know most modern PC are broken or buggy on launch.

Probably half the games released before 2010 are borderline unplayable without third-party mods and patches. Not even joking when I say you need four or five separate fixes just to get Max Payne running. I envy the PC gamer that doesn't know what "Game for Windows Live" is.

yes 3 games
GFWL is still running today you can add GFWL keys still.

i have 1 game from 2001 that stopped working on windows 11 and that annoys me somewhat. the other 1000s are still ok.

got 8024 dos games have you? because i have :D

Yup, GfWL works perfectly and has never interfered with a game once.

Let me guess, you thought Batman Arkham Knight was a stellar port, too?

[eram]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

yes 3 games
GFWL is still running today you can add GFWL keys still.

i have 1 game from 2001 that stopped working on windows 11 and that annoys me somewhat. the other 1000s are still ok.

got 8024 dos games have you? because i have :D

Yup, GfWL works perfectly and has never interfered with a game once.

Let me guess, you thought Batman Arkham Knight was a stellar port, too?

and fallout 3 with the 2gb ram limitation

and simon the sorcerer 2 in 1995 that had a broken install on the retail disk that needed the user to copy files to the correct dir. something in dos most people would struggle with.

so risky so rewarding.

[crunchyfrog]

I'm ssory but it really shouldn't be this way.

Personally I play on all platforms and have no particular favouritsm as my brain just don't work like that.

Whatever the platform they're largely just boxes that do the same thing - access games. Sure the PC does more than that. But while you're gaming, that's all it's doing for you atm.

That said, gaming I find easier nowadays on PC.

Back in the day when PCs first came around, they were bloody awful because things like graphics cards weren't really a thing. The best you had was DOS or CPM based games that used ASCII character sets. Some of them were indeed good, as the power of the PC was still good.

But of course as things progressed, and graphics cards and audio cards took off and PCs grew more prevalent, it got WORSE. Because there was not much standardization apart from being PC compatible. You would have to wrestle with setting up ports, and sometimes find out that game you bought just won't play nice with one of your parts, requiring Googling, workarounds and wrestling.

Even when the likes of Windows 7 was on the go, it was MUCH better as you didn't have any of that nonsense anymore, but you'd still have the occasional driver issue or incompatibility issues, especially if you were trying to play older games.

Nowadays it's frankly at it's best.

I've often said that because I'm an audio engineer, I have loads of synthesizers and various bits of audio equipment from over the decades. As such there has never been a time where everything works. All the items that have firewire, USB or whatever connector have ALWAYS had issues. Some connect, some don't. Some do but then refuse to do any basic communication.

And yet under Windows 10, I found out that all except 1 of my 1400 games here on Steam work fine. And miraculously ALL of my audio equipment thus far also works fine. Which I would never expect.

Perspective is a wonderful thing so if you're having trouble to the extent you're claiming you might want to take a look at your setup because that ain't how it should be working.

There's many reasons I game on a laptop. One is because of disability and reasons of convenience. But another is standardization. When you buy a mainstream laptop like the MSI I have you're going to have a slightly increased chance of things just working because they use pretty known parts. This will be a problem if ANYTHING in your PC desktop is unusual or installed wrong. That's always a risk.

So maybe consider looking a little more introspectively?

[Xero_Daxter]

Out of my 14 years of PC gaming I more often than not don’t run into issues. Not saying I don’t ever has issues but most of the time I don’t.

As for you, OP. If you wanna switch over then I’m not here to stop you.

[crunchyfrog]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Xero_Daxter:

Out of my 14 years of PC gaming I more often than not don’t run into issues. Not saying I don’t ever has issues but most of the time I don’t.

As for you, OP. If you wanna switch over then I’m not here to stop you.

Frankly I'm lazy. I readily admit to it.

Part of it is down to disability, and part age. As such I always want the easiest route, especially when it comes to leisurely acitivities like gaming.

I have a Raspberry Pi loaded with tons of games from various platforms that I use most of the time, even though I have all the games physically and the consoles it emulates. Simple reason is convenience.

It's easier for me to turn that on or pocket it and take it downstairs than me getting help to get the console I need out plus the games.

So that said, these days it's bloody easy to game on PC. In fact, I cannot recall the last time I had a game or program that didn't just work once it was downloaded.

That's going to bug me now as I try to remember what it was.

[Incarnate]

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Yup, GfWL works perfectly and has never interfered with a game once.

Let me guess, you thought Batman Arkham Knight was a stellar port, too?

and fallout 3 with the 2gb ram limitation

and simon the sorcerer 2 in 1995 that had a broken install on the retail disk that needed the user to copy files to the correct dir. something in dos most people would struggle with.
.

Ironically, the problem is most of the older games on Steam aren't updated or patched like on GoG. The game files usually taken straight taken from CD ROMs. I know people love Steam, but they sell tons of broken games. Read the game forums sometime.

[crunchyfrog]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Początkowo opublikowane przez eram:

and fallout 3 with the 2gb ram limitation

and simon the sorcerer 2 in 1995 that had a broken install on the retail disk that needed the user to copy files to the correct dir. something in dos most people would struggle with.
.

Ironically, the problem is most of the older games on Steam aren't updated or patched like on GoG. The game files usually taken straight taken from CD ROMs. I know people love Steam, but they sell tons of broken games. Read the game forums sometime.

You have it the wrong way round.

Steam do not sell broken games or at least have this responsiblity.

They CANNOT change games of which they own no copyright or other rights for. It's wrong for them to do so and they would be rightly sued.

The fault is entirely on those publishers or devs that release them here. They could do the same and release that content they also have on GOG and many actually do. BUt that's entirely on THEM.

[eram]

I've lost way more games to consoles than to PC and now consoles go hybrid disk and digital stores you lose console games at an increasing rate. Xbox 360 Live arcade, Nintendo stores.

[Incarnate]

Początkowo opublikowane przez crunchyfrog:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Incarnate:

Ironically, the problem is most of the older games on Steam aren't updated or patched like on GoG. The game files usually taken straight taken from CD ROMs. I know people love Steam, but they sell tons of broken games. Read the game forums sometime.

You have it the wrong way round.

Steam do not sell broken games or at least have this responsiblity.

They CANNOT change games of which they own no copyright or other rights for. It's wrong for them to do so and they would be rightly sued.

The fault is entirely on those publishers or devs that release them here. They could do the same and release that content they also have on GOG and many actually do. BUt that's entirely on THEM.

Regardless of who is to blame for out of date games, the idea that Steam games run flawlessly 90% of the time is preposterously naive. This thread is wild. "Click button on steam, play.." my ass. The forums are literally packed with patch guides and pages of bug fixes.