12 Ways Consoles Are Hurting PC Gaming

It ’s happen to everyone at one point or another . You ’re playing your best-loved FPS and minding your own business when your character finally succumbs to that pesky stream of heater that ’s been bouncing off his face for the past two minutes . “ Aw human being , ” you say aloud while a big , ominous Game Over blind stares you down . “ Well , at least I can jump properly back in and … ” But you ca n’t . Suddenly , you ’re 30 minutes away from where you kvetch the pail – your previous onward motion rotting at the bottom of some virtual waste-paper basket . “ Well , at least I can vary up my tactics and see the game from a unlike slant this time . ” Nope . So many inconspicuous walls that you may as well be a mime . “ Well , at least I can — ” Nuh - uh . Ca n’t do that either . So you pause to take a breather , but they immediately begin suffocating you . Games For Windows logos . Everywhere . And then you heat up drench in a dusty sweat , safe in your own bed and free of the nightmare ’s cruel clutches . “ It was just a dreaming , ” you mumble before dozing off again .

Or was it ? microcomputer gaming is far from buy the farm , but not for a lack of exploit on console ’ parts . While consoles have doubtless aided in bring videogames to the masses , they ’ve also easy but surely molded gambling in their own image . The end result ? Well , story like the one above , for starters . But that ’s only the tip of the iceberg . Jump past the break for consoles ’ most egregious criminal offense against our hobby .

Delayed/Glitchy Ports

rent us get down our enlistment with Unfortunate Console Consequences 101 : the bad embrasure . It can take many form , and even in this day and historic period of developers work tirelessly for platform equality , it ’s all - too - coarse . From Resident Evil 4 to Grand Theft Auto IV to a large routine of games without fours in their title , fun - defeat , sometimes biz - halting bugs have plagued many major microcomputer release . honestly , it ’s unforgivable .

Let ’s not , however , bury the other side of the coin : the inexplicably delayed port wine . Ubisoft ’s Assassin ’s Creed series , for instance , has been doing it for years – with risky whispers chalk it up to piracy avoidance . But here ’s the matter : it only encourage plagiarization . If you address people like second - class citizens , do n’t be surprised when they start doing whatever ’s necessary to get ahead .

Dumbed-Down Sequels

To be completely honest , we detest the phrase “ dumbed - down . ” It ’s often carelessly lunge at any game that ’s made a meaning change – whether for practiced or worse . Mass Effect 2 , for instance , was sensibly streamlined . Crysis 2 attend to be taking a similar route . Sometimes , though , the terminal figure ’s ugly fingermark are so thoroughly coat all over a plot that it ’s unmistakably the perpetrator . For illustration , the original Dragon Age was a unclouded descendent of former - school personal computer RPGs like Baldur ’s Gate – multilayered complexness include . Its continuation , by contrast , is a mussy mish - mash of console table - favorable simpleness , thin - and - paste level pattern , and tiny glimmers of the original ’s brilliance . Oftentimes , the issue is n’t even so much that developers endeavor to debunk console players to popular microcomputer - centrical franchises . Rather , it ’s that they do so at random , resulting in an ugly duckling of a Cartesian product that does n’t entirely fit on any finical platform . And that ’s an incredible pity when you attend at efforts like CCP ’s online console FPS Dust 514 , which seeks to congratulate the uber - complex Eve Online , but not replace it . unhappily , it ’s definitely the exception – not the rule .

The Future Isn’t Now

Current console technical school is at least five years - old – except for the Wii , whose innards ’ shelf date came and went shortly after shelf appointment were invented . In the big - budget play sector , that fact is inescapable . Taking advantage of sincerely geld - edge hardware simply is n’t economically practicable for developer because most of the crowd is still lagging far behind the frontrunners . Without a question , we microcomputer gamers have the sheeny hotrods on the lot – and we ’ve even visualize what they can really do thanks to Epic and Crytek ’s late technical school demonstration – opportunities to put them to the test are few and far between . As for when console - makers will make up one’s mind to finally kick - off a new “ next - gen , ” it ’s toughened to say . Kinect and Move are meant to offer their several platforms ’ live by up - to - five - years , but that could very well be Proto-Indo European - in - the - sky merchandising speak . Plus , many developers like uniform , well - understood hardware architectures . In other lyric , no flush . So , for PC gamers , it ’s definitely a “ the preferably , the good situation , ” but we ’re far from the only factors in this equation .

Lousy Interfaces/Controls

When a plot reach a quick - and - dirty jump from console to PC , ascendancy and interface are often the first things to meet . From minor issues – like menus that mystifyingly force you to navigate with arrow keys instead of , you know , your mouse – to thiswonderfully terrible videoof the agonising prison house fracture that is escape from the original Assassin ’s Creed , poor control conversions pop up up all over the place . Fact is , computer mouse / keyboard and gamepads are – shockingly enough – unlike , and what ’s perfectly satisfactory on one may be a total nightmare on the other . But hey , as PC gamers , at least we can re - map some of this hooey , veracious ? Dead place 2 tell “ no . ” ( Fortunately , EA make it after somehighly publicize outcry . Still though , hombre , badly ? It ’s 2011 . Come on . )

There Is No Mod

In the corking backwash to the finish that is adjoin that bountiful launch deadline , sometimes developers have to take a whole tone back and realise that they ’ll scarely have meter to pack in “ everything ” – let alone “ and the kitchen sink . ” And while mod are an integral part of PC gaming , they only make waves in Console Land every once in a puritanic lunation . The end lead ? “ Well , we might release official mod tools sometime in the future tense , ” which is the industry equivalent of “ You are currently on postponement . Your business is important to us . Listen to this loop track of weak jazz for the 15th meter . ”

The Great Divide

“ My program ’s better than your platform . ” “ Halo ’s better than Half - lifetime . ” “ PlayStation ? More like … , ” well , we ’ll rent you replete in the dummy on that one . Point is , these highly targeted , marketing - enhanced weapons platform boundaries de - underscore the most important part of our hobby : the game . So instead of appreciating the compounding of blood , sweat , and snag that ’s been wrung from the preceding three years of some poor developer ’s living , we argue over which chopine ’s “ the success . ” We call each other names . We go up up on our soapboxes to rant about , well , different box . But really , why does it even matter ? Simple : it does n’t . think it or not , this hobby ’s about having fun – not rain down on other hoi polloi ’s parades . have ’s not lose sight of that fact .

Games are fraught with their shares of unnerving foes , but few actively look for to harm your experience more than required auto - save . Countless keyboard have been shatter into second - rate Scrabble tiles over checkpoints that are worse than Gandalf about permit you pass . It ’s sort of an odd trend , too , see as “ save wherever you need ” features have been around for ages and only take one or two dog / clit printing press to access . We reckon it ’s all in sideline of the holy grail that is effortless , persuasion - destitute dousing , but that ’s more often than not the furthest affair from our creative thinker when we ’re un - embedding our computer mouse from a potentially relate computer mouse - shaped hole in the bulwark . On that line , while not progress - have-to doe with , quick - time events make a likewise cringe - worthy bellyflop when attempt to bound from console to personal computer . comptroller : a few possible button . Keyboards : six trillion key fruit . Developers : do the mathematics .

Games For Windows

Ah yes , the received - bearer for the “ well clearly , if console table gamers like it , PC gamers will love having it forced upon them too ” cause . Calling Games for Windows a trainwreck would n’t be doing it jurist , because trainwrecks eventually stop . We prefer to intend of GFW as a trainwreck that collided with a car wreck that collided with a plane shipwreck that clash with the Large Hadron Collider . At every turn , it ’s strain to give microcomputer gambling an Xbox Live makeover , and microcomputer gamers have been unsurprisingly incensed . After all , if we wanted an Xbox , we would have buy a friggin ’ Xbox . Please , though , Microsoft , none of that silly Avatar busine — oh . Oh no .

Making Us Hate Our Favorite Developers

If it has n’t already become glaringly apparent , game developers are only human . They ca n’t be everything for everyone . We wish , however , that they ’d stop feeling so pressured to lie about it . Unfortunately , the tendency these day seems to go something like this : Formerly PC - Centric Developer X begins to pore on cabinet . Longtime microcomputer fans feel slighted and start complaining . Formerly PC - Centric Developer X replies that it ’ll always be a PC developer first and a console developer secondly . Then the PC version of its game does n’t get a demo , gets delayed for more than a year , and terminate up being an outsourced port . We understand , developer and publishers : you ’re running a business enterprise . But we ’re not stupid . Give us the truth – even if it offend .

Kinecting The Dots

Kinect ’s only the most late model in a recollective communication channel of devices that have been seriously held back by console ’ proprietary nature . Even so , it ’s implausibly indicatory of the overall trend . Brilliant Kinect hackers , after all , have used the unassuming trivial gadget for everything from 3D radio detection and ranging to Minecraft picture taking . Meanwhile , the Xbox has reach us – drumroll – a game about baby tigers and something called “ Adrenalin Misfits . ” gratefully , Microsoft ’s prescribed microcomputer SDK is at long last on the horizon , but this is hardly the first fourth dimension console table technology has been chained down by its own proprietary roots . The Wii - mote , for example , had its own share of interesting hacks , and do n’t even get us started on the whole PS3 jailbreaking / homebrew fiasco .

Non-Existent Post-Release Support

Oh no , now we do n’t get to expend $ 15 on a glorify mapping pack . Boo - hoo . really , though , this can be a make - or - break prospect depending on the biz – specially if its developer leave it in high spirits - and - dry altogether . For example , Modern Warfare 2 ’s on-line servers were speedily overrun by game - breaking cheaters , and Infinity Ward ’s been fantastically dull to answer ever since . Beyond that , of line , you have games like motivation for upper : Hot Pursuit and Dead Space 2 , both of which have very substantial DLC packs on the way – but not for PC . Please , publishing house , do n’t make us beg . Oh , wait .

Dead-icated Servers

Ever since Modern Warfare 2 dropped the ball by pulling the plug on dedicated host sustenance , every PC biz developer ’s had to look brutal interrogation on the issue . “ OK , yes , we ’re certain Greatest Game of All Time will be OK or whatever , but does it have dedicated server ? ” Answers , however , have been assorted . I d Software ’s forthcoming RAGE , for instance , will “ probably ” abandon that crucial feature in a post - apocalyptic junk pot . BioShock 2 , similarly , showed its console table tooth root by point clear of dedicated server livelihood as well . There is , however , a brilliant side here . Fan cry over these games has caused many developers to well understand the importance of dedicated servers , pass to stronger PC multiplayer feature Seth from games like Brink , Homefront , Battlefield Bad Company 2 , Battlefield 3 , and Medal of Honor . Fingers crossed that this tendency does n’t go away any time soon .

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