Anyone else fed up with PC gaming?

Flogger23m said:
If I have a problem with gaming, it generally is gaming wide and not limited to PC gaming. For example, micro transactions or silly cosmetics in multiplayer games isn't just a problem in PC games.
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This. Especially mmorpg trends. All of the cool looking stuff is on the cash shop, and is wildly out of place in the fame setting, instead of being earned in game and fitting the faction/setting. Lots of "convenience" items. Lots of bad design issues in game play systems on purpose to drive you to the cash shop to work around those problems they created. Etc.
 
Yeah I'm honestly sick of upgrading I plan to keep my current system for 3 or 4 years without adding to it 12700k with a 3070. Based on some of the latest vidrogames I should be good for a while. I mean would you ever upgrade your Amiga or Tandy 1000? I never owned either but tried both.. Basically jerks on Youtube Influence you to keep upgrading and Google ads. Those are friends I don't need. It takes a strong person to avoid those jerks. The only guy I really like on Youtube is Classical GPU he's basically influncer algorithm with classical music GPU cake voice.
 
Its not about the money for me just being able to play the latest games without hitches. Whole industry is FOMO driven even when no good games are coming out for something like the PS5.
 
I used to rotate on a similar cycle of PC every 6 to 8 depending on how advancements have gone and GPU's between but Covid and current prices have shot that in the face lol. Thankfully I have good parts that I'm hoping will keep going for a few more years to either bring some value back into the pricing or some crazy improvements when I do jump to newer stuff.
 
Comixbooks said:
Its not about the money for me just being able to play the latest games without hitches. Whole industry is FOMO driven even when no good games are coming out for something like the PS5.
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I dislike almost every modern game but I don't know if they're really any worse when it comes to instability. There was a huge decline in quality once multi-platform console ports became the norm, but since then I don't think things have changed much. My tolerance for it has decreased dramatically though. I no longer enjoy spending hours reading about and tweaking a console port to get it to run without vsync, mouse acceleration, and at higher than 30-60 fps.


I think most recent games have been ruined by a few things:

Lack of Focus on Gameplay
This happened in the past too, but it seems to be getting worse. Most games just aren't fun, they're a chore. And even if they're kinda fun, I often find older games to be more fun. I don't play games for music, good writing, voice acting, or any reason other than to have fun. Those things can all enhance a game, but they can't fix a bad game. FWIW, while voice acting may have gotten better (one of my lowest concerns), I think writing quality has decreased (this matters more for some genres than others) so even despite the increased focus on non-gameplay related priorities it's not like everything else has improved enough to even pretend to make up for it. Graphical improvements are minimal now as well so this crutch is also gone.

Microtransactions
Lost Ark and BDO seem like MMOs that would've been great without microtransactions ruining the design. When there are so few good games out there, losing some of them to design choices made to force people into pay to win models is unfortunate. But this clearly makes the studios more money and people clearly seem to be able to want to swipe their credit cards and win.

Consolitis
Another thing I don't think will ever go away until we come up with a better input method that can be used on your couch. I generally just suffer through the random and artificial technical limitations now, but the bigger issue is that game design is now generally limited by the inputs of a controller and designed around those limitations. RPG inventory menus are a good example of how UI design has regressed, and something like Dragon Age Inquisition is a good example I think of how gameplay regresses. Even if you're lucky enough to come across a game that has done a good job of making different UIs for both systems, a lot of the gameplay design will still be oversimplified and limiting.
Some recent examples:
Elden Ring - On release you couldn't even use a keyboard and mouse input on PC without knowing random hotkeys to navigate the menus with to change some random setting. It's not even that the game defaulted you to a controller setup despite not having one plugged in, you literally couldn't navigate menus without changing settings. It was like only a few random keys on your keyboard worked and mouse input didn't work at all unless you made this change.
Baldur's Gate 3 - Same developer, same game engine as their previous games, but it took a major step back compared to Divinity Original Sin in UI design. I think they took the rare path of trying to shoehorn in PC complexity into the console versions because they already had a working PC solution, so you still get a million different items to manage but now the UI is bad too. The attached screenshot shows what you get when you pull up your inventory. Instead of pressing "I" and seeing what you have equipped and what's in your bag, you just see four bags of items (why not just have a merged inventory like a lot of other games?). To equipment things you now have to click or press more buttons. You could've done something like I opens up the Char 1 inventory like in any sane RPG and then the scroll wheel or something flips it between party members. Then on the console have it look the same and use a trigger button to cycle through or something. You have a 4 character party limit so cycling doesn't seem like a bad solution that would make things work on either system. Anyway, end of my rant on that, but this is a good example of developers still forcing bad design on PC gamers. It's nothing new, but games didn't all used to be like this either.

The only hope I have for gaming is a massive market crash similar to the 80s causing these studios to go out of business.
 

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Andrew_Carr said:
Elden Ring - On release you couldn't even use a keyboard and mouse input on PC without knowing random hotkeys to navigate the menus with to change some random setting. It's not even that the game defaulted you to a controller setup despite not having one plugged in, you literally couldn't navigate menus without changing settings. It was like only a few random keys on your keyboard worked and mouse input didn't work at all unless you made this change.
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You could use mouse and keyboard to navigate the menus at launch. But indeed, the way they mapped the keys was really strange. To go "back/cancel", you right click, which pops up a context window with a "back/cancel" button. And then you click on that, with the mouse pointer. Super strange.
 
chameleoneel said:
You could use mouse and keyboard to navigate the menus at launch. But indeed, the way they mapped the keys was really strange. To go "back/cancel", you right click, which pops up a context window with a "back/cancel" button. And then you click on that, with the mouse pointer. Super strange.
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Yeah, it threw me off. Had to google it just to be able to navigate the menus and change the settings to something that worked.
 
staknhalo said:
I only do upgrades every 6/7/8 years, GPUs every 4, I keep up with tech and watch YouTube tech channels in-between that time

The problem isn't avoiding jerks, it's you learning self control and not to impulsively spend
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I agree fully I have a 10850k and RTX 2080 super and I'm going to sit for a bit. However there's a missing issue here that's often dodged by the PC community.

If you aren't pushing 4k or insane frame rates you have no advantage over going the console route, and even that line is starting to blur more. Furthermore while what you build RIGHT NOW might give a PS5 or so a run for it's money or even beat it if you don't upgrade constantly as developers get better with a console you're going to get out done and quick.

I'm lucky in that I tend to find a game I like and then just play the hell out of it and I lot of the stuff I really like is retro inspired (hello Streets of Rage 4) so no big deal. But the entire "advantages of PC gaming" sort of require staying on the cutting edge to avoid the "should have got a console" trap. The main selling point to me now as I got older is keeping my games library around through migrations.

There's just too much money in AAA games to make good ones anymore and so much money in higher end hardware that it's sort of go big or go bust now. It sucks but oh well.
 
I think that it helps if you don't focus on the newer games that are getting all the hype. There are dozens if not hundreds of interesting games out there, almost all available at reasonable prices on Steam. Older AA or AAA major games, and many indie games. I have a few dozen games in my backlog that I'm slowly playing through. All of which run fine at 4k on my laptop with a 2070.

Older games are cheaper, more stable because they have already been optimized and patched, and in some cases have lots of mods to address QOL or other issues. Plus you know which games end up sucking (BF2042, Cyberpunk at launch) a few months after they've launched.

I just can't see ever becoming jaded w PC gaming because of how much goodness there is out there. You just have to get off thr hype train and FOMO hardware train that the industry tries to get everyone so concerned with to drive sales. Just wait for the steam sales and buy titles that look interesting when they are on sale for cheap. Or use Epic to get good games 100% free.

It's a pretty freaking great time to be a PC gamer.
 
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peppergomez said:
I think that it helps if you don't focus on the newer games that are getting all the hype. There are dozens if not hundreds of interesting games out there, almost all available at reasonable prices on Steam. Older AA or AAA major games, and many indie games. I have a few dozen games in my backlog that I'm slowly playing through. All of which run fine at 4k on my laptop with a 2070.

Older games are cheaper, more stable because they have already been optimized and patched, and in some cases have lots of mods to address QOL or other issues. Plus you know which games end up sucking (BF2042, Cyberpunk at launch) a few months after they've launched.

I just can't see ever becoming jaded w PC gaming because of how much goodness there is out there. You just have to get off thr hype train and FOMO hardware train that the industry tries to get everyone so concerned with to drive sales. Just wait for the steam sales and buy titles that look interesting when they are on sale for cheap. Or use Epic to get good games 100% free.

It's a pretty freaking great time to be a PC gamer.
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Again though the problem is people want 4k 144fps max out because if that's not what you are doing, or 1080p 240hz 240fps there isn't a reason to get a PC. I'm with you though I play the stuff I like. Recent Quake 1 update was great and it's amazing I can say that!
 
yeah i need a pc anyway for stuff besides gaming so buying a console vs just a gpu especially when i have a steam account with almost 20 years worth of purchases and gamestream already lets me play my pc games on any tv at the crib with a controller (or m&kb at the TV) if i want.... i'm good where i'm at thanks
 
Andrew_Carr said:
I no longer enjoy spending hours reading about and tweaking a console port to get it to run without vsync, mouse acceleration, and at higher than 30-60 fps.

The only hope I have for gaming is a massive market crash similar to the 80s causing these studios to go out of business.
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It sounds like you've lost a bit of interest and your expectations also increased. My experience is the opposite. Once the xbox 360/PS3 era came, multiplatform games were much more polished albeit with some clunky controls leftover for mouse/keyboard.

There are certainly games out there without the biggest issues you have. It Takes Two is a wonderfully polished Co-Op game you can play with almost anybody and it certainly hits on all the points you're asking for. Gameplay, charm, music, and world building make it a joy to replay with friends who have never touched it before.
 
From a technical perspective I think PC gaming has been more trouble free today than ever before. Sure there are games that get rushed and have bugs, but that’s only an issue if you make it one and take it upon yourself to “fix” your computer when the issue is really with the game or perhaps requires a video driver update that may not yet be available. BF2042 for example was a mess on all platforms, arguable more so on consoles.
 
WilyKit said:
From a technical perspective I think PC gaming has been more trouble free today than ever before. Sure there are games that get rushed and have bugs, but that’s only an issue if you make it one and take it upon yourself to “fix” your computer when the issue is really with the game or perhaps requires a video driver update that may not yet be available. BF2042 for example was a mess on all platforms, arguable more so on consoles.
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The hell that was dealing with IRQs and jumpers.
 
Curious for those not fed up, what upcoming PC games are you excited for?

I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing, but I noticed when I stopped being excited for new releases I started losing interest in PC gaming. I have looked and don't see anything announced that remotely makes me want to build a gaming PC. In the back of my mind there is still that itch, but then I try to find new or upcoming games that might interest me and I just find nothing.
 
brennok said:
Curious for those not fed up, what upcoming PC games are you excited for?

I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing, but I noticed when I stopped being excited for new releases I started losing interest in PC gaming. I have looked and don't see anything announced that remotely makes me want to build a gaming PC. In the back of my mind there is still that itch, but then I try to find new or upcoming games that might interest me and I just find nothing.
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For me, games come out faster than I can keep up with. I have a huge back log so there's nothing particularly i'm super excited about. I suppose if I had to pick one it would be Modern Warfare 2. I always look forward to the next Battlefield game but 2042 was an epic letdown. I also enjoy the Assassins Creed series, though I'm usually a game or two behind so I tend to buy them when they're on sale.
 
brennok said:
Curious for those not fed up, what upcoming PC games are you excited for?

I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing, but I noticed when I stopped being excited for new releases I started losing interest in PC gaming. I have looked and don't see anything announced that remotely makes me want to build a gaming PC. In the back of my mind there is still that itch, but then I try to find new or upcoming games that might interest me and I just find nothing.
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Whatever kojima or capcom or tomb raider thing comes out next usually with the new unexpected title here or there
 
brennok said:
Curious for those not fed up, what upcoming PC games are you excited for?

I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing, but I noticed when I stopped being excited for new releases I started losing interest in PC gaming. I have looked and don't see anything announced that remotely makes me want to build a gaming PC. In the back of my mind there is still that itch, but then I try to find new or upcoming games that might interest me and I just find nothing.
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The thing is my PC is also a work box to an extent, especially with COVID. From a straight gaming standpoint, even with a 3090 and 10core cpu consoles just work better. I also just passed 40 so my reflexes aren't what they once were. For the PC I'm looking for an epic single player that supports a 1600p ultrawide that I can nestle into for a good while and just blow a weekened on when I get one totally off. That.... doesn't happen often.

For MP I realized a while back that while I'm fine with being slower for MP games (I still play OG Quake) everyone bounces from one thing to another and I end up with hundreds of games I didn't really ever get into. Total War Warhammer is good but I single player that.
 
brennok said:
Curious for those not fed up, what upcoming PC games are you excited for?

I realize it isn't necessarily the same thing, but I noticed when I stopped being excited for new releases I started losing interest in PC gaming. I have looked and don't see anything announced that remotely makes me want to build a gaming PC. In the back of my mind there is still that itch, but then I try to find new or upcoming games that might interest me and I just find nothing.
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