I'm really getting sick of computer gaming. It's being to terrible lately that I have no clue to do next. Let me point out what's sickening me so much:
1) Absurd system requirements:
I remember when I got my Athlon XP, it was the 1700 model. Everything from that time ran great. Until last year it was still capable of running almost everything with ease. But early this year I got myself an AMD64 and I was sure it would be like before, enough for at least three years of use, but now I find that my AMD64 3000+ is sooooo outdated for today's standards. Same goes for my GPU. I had a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 until last year. I got it since 2002 and wow how great that card was. Then I got an ATI Radeon x1600 because I couldn't afford more than that (I'm not from the U.S. so stuff is expensive here). It a great card actually despite what most people say and it's still serving me well. But now less than a year since I got it some games already refuse to run properly on it. It seems that if you don't have SLI/Crossfire you are cursed to be left behind.
2) Quantity over quality:
It seems that having top notch graphical quality is all that matters. Gameplay, what's that? History? Replayability? Seriously, what's going on? Every game looks the same. It's always the same plot over and over and over and over......... You are the savior of mankind against the evil universe. RPG's, FPS, RTS. Every game genre has the same base plot. Why can't I be the evil guy for a change?
The last good games I remember playing on PC were Bloodlines and KOTOR. Both with unique plots (although KOTOR just followed the standard SW cliches), but still great games.
Now what about originality. A few weeks ago a was playing a classic Genesis game, Haunted Starring Polterguy. Man, that was fun. The game is from 1993 and it's extremely well detailed. The goal? Scare people at their home using various different objects in the house. There's no other game like that. Heck man, even Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat had more "soul" than today's games. Shinobi anyone? Why don't we get games like that remade with today's eye candy but please, without "improvements". Most of the time I hear about an old formula being improved because the community asked it gives me chill down my spine and I get ready to say goodbye to my beloved game. Imagine a game like Sonic remade, being able to run at supersonic speeds with today's shader technologies.
3) Copy Protections:
Now here's a true end Boss. So many games ruined by it. Rainbow Six Lockdown was one game I was interest, really got my attention, but as soon as I found out it uses StarForce it was an instant NO THANKS for me (please nobody saying that "starforce never did anything bad to me" or "your just a dirty pirate, stfu and leave"). Now the newer versions of Securom are following the same route, getting intrusive, copying stuff to your hdd and registry without your knowledge and to make it even worse you can't delete it without third part apps. Copy protections sometimes even refuse to start the original game you bought in the store 30mins ago!
To sum it up, it's getting to a point where it will die and it won't take long for that to happen. Take PS3 for example and it's new Grand Turismo game. Great quality. You can see that the devs worked their @sses to make it look good. Look at the upcoming Mass Effect from Bioware, also for the console. Jade Empire, a game I'm yet to play, also only for consoles. Computers have to much potential to have great games but nobody seems to use it right. I might just give up and get a console to enjoy good gaming nights again.
1) Absurd system requirements:
I remember when I got my Athlon XP, it was the 1700 model. Everything from that time ran great. Until last year it was still capable of running almost everything with ease. But early this year I got myself an AMD64 and I was sure it would be like before, enough for at least three years of use, but now I find that my AMD64 3000+ is sooooo outdated for today's standards. Same goes for my GPU. I had a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 until last year. I got it since 2002 and wow how great that card was. Then I got an ATI Radeon x1600 because I couldn't afford more than that (I'm not from the U.S. so stuff is expensive here). It a great card actually despite what most people say and it's still serving me well. But now less than a year since I got it some games already refuse to run properly on it. It seems that if you don't have SLI/Crossfire you are cursed to be left behind.
2) Quantity over quality:
It seems that having top notch graphical quality is all that matters. Gameplay, what's that? History? Replayability? Seriously, what's going on? Every game looks the same. It's always the same plot over and over and over and over......... You are the savior of mankind against the evil universe. RPG's, FPS, RTS. Every game genre has the same base plot. Why can't I be the evil guy for a change?
The last good games I remember playing on PC were Bloodlines and KOTOR. Both with unique plots (although KOTOR just followed the standard SW cliches), but still great games.
Now what about originality. A few weeks ago a was playing a classic Genesis game, Haunted Starring Polterguy. Man, that was fun. The game is from 1993 and it's extremely well detailed. The goal? Scare people at their home using various different objects in the house. There's no other game like that. Heck man, even Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat had more "soul" than today's games. Shinobi anyone? Why don't we get games like that remade with today's eye candy but please, without "improvements". Most of the time I hear about an old formula being improved because the community asked it gives me chill down my spine and I get ready to say goodbye to my beloved game. Imagine a game like Sonic remade, being able to run at supersonic speeds with today's shader technologies.
3) Copy Protections:
Now here's a true end Boss. So many games ruined by it. Rainbow Six Lockdown was one game I was interest, really got my attention, but as soon as I found out it uses StarForce it was an instant NO THANKS for me (please nobody saying that "starforce never did anything bad to me" or "your just a dirty pirate, stfu and leave"). Now the newer versions of Securom are following the same route, getting intrusive, copying stuff to your hdd and registry without your knowledge and to make it even worse you can't delete it without third part apps. Copy protections sometimes even refuse to start the original game you bought in the store 30mins ago!
To sum it up, it's getting to a point where it will die and it won't take long for that to happen. Take PS3 for example and it's new Grand Turismo game. Great quality. You can see that the devs worked their @sses to make it look good. Look at the upcoming Mass Effect from Bioware, also for the console. Jade Empire, a game I'm yet to play, also only for consoles. Computers have to much potential to have great games but nobody seems to use it right. I might just give up and get a console to enjoy good gaming nights again.